
Class 
Book. 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSnv 



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PABM-POULTRY SERIES No. 10. 



COMMON-5LN5L ^ 

POULTRY 

DOCTOR. 



BY 

JOHN H. ROBINSON, 

Editor of Farm-Poultry, Author of " Poultry-Craft,' 
First Lessons in Poultry Keeping, etc., etc. 



PRICE 50 CLNT5 



Published by 
FARM-POULTRY PUBLISHING CO. 
Boston, Mass. 
1907 



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NOV 2 !^0f 

CnTjynaJit Entry 
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CLA£r. 4 X;^C„ No. 
60PY B. 






Copyrighted by 

FARM-POULTRY PUBLISHING CO., 

1907. 



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CONTENTS. 



Introductory and Personal - - - - S 

CHAPTER I. 
To Doctor or Not to Doctor — When to Doctor, and 

What to Doctor _ - _ - _ 8 

CHAPTER n. 
Indications of Health and General Symptoms of 

Disease --..---13 

CHAPTER in. 
General Rules for the Prevention of Diseases - 17 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Symptoms of Disease - - - - - 2i 

CHAPTER V. 
A Few General Remarks on the Diseases of Poultry 

and Their Treatment - - - - 36 

CHAPTER VI. 
Colds and Diseases that Begin With Colds - - 41 



iv CONTLNTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Diseases Due to Improper Foods and Feeding - - 6i 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Some Peculiarly Subtle and Dangerous Diseases - 88 

CHAPTER IX. 
Diseases of the Reproductive Organs - - - 104,, 

CHAPTER X. 

Diseases of the Skin - - - - - 114 

CHAPTER XI. 
Miscellaneous Ailments ----- 125 

CHAPTER XII. 
Accidents and Injuries ----- 136 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Internal Parasites of Poultry - - - - 14^ 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Insects Injurious to Poultry . - - - 153 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Vicious Habits of Fowls - - . . 162 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Molting -------- 169 

Appendix - - - - - - -173 

Index -------- 174 



THH 



COMMON-SENSE 

POULTRY DOCTOR. 



Introductory and Personal, 



OF BOOKS and booklets on poultry diseases there are in the 
English language possibly a score — not including pam- 
phlets or circulars distributed to advertise remedies. Besides, 
nearly every general work on poultry contains a chapter on poultry 
diseases. 

Of works on poultry diseases a goodly proportion are by men 
who may be considered specialists, professionals. They are doctors 
of veterinary surgery, or regular medical practitioners whose inter- 
est in poultry naturally led them into the investigation of poultry 
diseases. 

Why, then, another book on poultry diseases, and by an author 
without medical education and training.? 



The conditions of poultry doctoring are peculiar. The ordinary 
individual fowl is of such small value that a single examination 
or treatment by a medical practitioner would cost more than the 
fowl was worth. For this reason professional medical attendance 
on sick fowls is almost unknown. Occasionally, in case of an 
epidemic which completely baffles him, a poultryman calls in one 



o THE COMMON-5E.N5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

of the few qualified practitioners who respond to such calls when 
their regular duties permit. In some of the states the services of 
experts connected with the State Experiment Stations or Agricul- 
tural Colleges may be secured in such emergencies. As a rule, 
however, every poultryman has to be his own poultry doctor, and 
treat his fowls according to his judgment, aided sometimes by 
such light as he can get from books or from other poultrymen. 

As a rule, the poultryman with no authority to consult, or in 
doubt after learning what he could from accessible sources of infor- 
mation, goes to the editor of a poultry paper for further advice, 
and, as a rule, the editor, if he can help the inquirer, is able to 
help him because of a little more experience with sick fowls, 
familiarity with the literature of the subject, and constant practice 
in deciphering from amateur descriptions the symptoms which 
enable him to identify the disease at least accurately enough to 
direct his correspondent where to look for information that will 
help him to a better knowledge of the case and its causes and the 
methods of treating it. 

So it came about that engaging in editorial work on a poultry 
paper I had to renew the study of poultry diseases which, as a 
practical poultryman, I had discontinued years before, and con- 
sidering them always from the non-professional point of view, 
from the standpoint of the practical poultryman, I appreciated, as 
a professional medical man probably would not, the difficulties 
encountered by the layman using some of the best works on poultry 
diseases. The work on diseases which I have myself found by far 
the most valuable for reference became satisfactory only after con- 
stant use had made me familiar with its contents. Even this work, 
though far more exhaustive than any other, is not complete. It 
contains nothing or scant information on a number of matters that 
are frequently the subject of inquiry, and it treats some diseases in 
such a way that not many using the book would discover the con- 
nection between a case of the disease and the treatment of it here. 
The smaller books are quite generally not explicit enough. In 
nearly all works on diseases of poultry a knowledge of the name, 
or at least the general character of a disease, is the first requisite 
in a search for information about it. This is precisely the knowl- 
edge that most of those consulting a book on poultry diseases go 



INTRODUCTORY AND PLR50NAL. 7 

to it for, and the books are therefore deficient in the very feature 
which would make them most helpful to poultrymen using them 
most — that is, to beginners. 

In this book I have tried to develop a method of diagnosis espe- 
cially suited to those not familiar with the various poultry diseases. 
It is not the professional method, and I do not suppose that it 
would be of much use to a professional, but I trust the novice in 
the treatment of sick fowls will find it practical and helpful. It is 
approximately the method evolved by the peculiar conditions under 
which I have to advise about sick fowls, and though it has its 
defects and its limitations, I think that most of those not able to 
recognize and name diseases by their visible symptoms will find it 
more satisfactory than anything yet offered them. 

This method of diagnosis, the more complete list of diseases 
treated, the strictly popular style of the work, and the attention 
given many minor details which the professional writers have too 
often assumed everyone knew, are the special features which seem 
to me to furnish the reasons for another book on poultry diseases. 
Its object is to supply a connection which seems to be too often 
missing between those who need and those who have knowledge of 
the subject; and it is on such a basis that a non-professional may, 
with propriety, venture to treat the subject of poultry diseases. 

For the matter of the book I have drawn freely on the standard 
writers on the subject, and, in general, have followed them in 
statements of symptoms, treatment, etc., but occasionally have 
supplied a fact from personal knowledge, and I presume that com- 
parison would show here and there a variation from advices of 
such authorities as to the advisability of treating, though, on the 
whole, those authorities agree with the body of experienced poultry 
keepers in regard to the general unprofitableness of doctoring. 

JOHN H. ROBINSON, 



CHAPTER 



To Doctor or Not to Doctor — When to Doctor ami 
What to Doctor. 



DISEASE in the poultry yard may be considered and treated 
on a very different basis from disease among human beings, 
or even among the larger domestic animals. In a general way the 
common diseases are the same, or similar in causes, symptoins, 
and treatment, though often differing in name; but in the case of 
a sick or injured animal, the owner may consider whether it will 
pay to restore the animal to health or sound condition, while, in 
the case of a human being, moral obligations and the natural 
affections impel these directly interested in the welfare of the 
patient to exhaust every means to preserve life, though prolonged 
life may mean misery to the sufferer, and care and expense to his 
family or friends. In the case of a sick or injured fowl the owner 
may consider the profit and loss aspects of the situation, but with 
this difference between the fowls and larger domestic animals : The 
value of the fowl is generally so small that the proportion of cases 
it does not pay to treat is very much increased, and it is only in 
-exceptional instances that it pays to doctor sick fowls. 

Some poultrymen take the extreme ground that it pays best never 
to doctor sick fowls at all, but to kill them at once, and so dispose 
of their carcasses that the health of the flock cannot be further 
menaced by the disease which affected them. 

This position is too radical. I doubt whether anyone ever 
adhered to it strictly, except for a very short time. Those who 
claimed to do so, I have generally found killed only very sick fowls, 
vthough from their statements it would be inferred that tiiey kept no 



THE ECONOMIC RULE OF ACTION. 9 

fowls not perfectly healthy. In practice they are less radical than 
in theory, and their practice agrees with that of most experienced 
and successful poultry keepers. 
The general rule is : — 

Give treatment tvhen it can be applied to a JJock con- 
veniently and ivith reasonable expectation of beneficial 
results, and treat individuals, if necessary, -when treatment 
is simple, easy, and needs to be administered but very feiv 
times. 
This we may term the economic rule for treatment of sick fowls, 
the rule to apply when the first question to consider is the financial 
aspect of doctoring in any particular case. 

If one wishes to treat sick fowls for the purpose of observing 
the course of a disease, its symptoms, effects of methods of treat- 
ment, etc., that is another matter, and one — it should be said — 
with which the poultryman who has to make his living from poul- 
try, and finds his time pretty well occupied in making it, should 
have as little as possible to do. The practical investigation of dis- 
eases of poultry by poultrymen ends when it has gone as far as 
necessary to show how the disease in question can best be avoided; 
and in the treatment of diseases that are brought to or develop in 
his yards a poultry keeper can generally get experience in that line 
as fast as he needs it, even if he limits his efforts to the treatment 
of cases he regards as well worth trying to save. 

In deciding that point, the novice is apt to err against his own 
immediate interests, just as he does in deciding what fowls it is 
worth while to keep to sell for breeding purposes. In his early 
experiences in poultry keeping he reserves for sale many fowls of 
a grade and value he soon learns it does not pay to hold, and in the 
same period he regards as worth an effort to save many fowls which 
a few years later he will unhesitatingly kill rather than be bothered 
treating and risk the danger of spreading disease in his flock. In 
the case of sick fowls, however, there is a compensating feature. 
Though he doctors many fowls it does not pay to treat, he is learn- 
ing much that is of practical use to him. He gets a practical 
training in the general management of fowls, learns the premoni- 
tory symptoms of the common diseases, gains a better appreciation 
of the reasons for various preventive measures about which many 



10 THL COMMON-5LN5E POULTRY DOCTOR. 

are too careless, and gets a better understanding of the limits of 
safety in the matters in which extraordinary risks are sometimes 
warranted. 

On the w-hole, it may be said that the experience in treating sick 
fowls which the great majority of beginners acquire because they 
either are not convinced of the wisdom of the rule given above, 
or are much more lax in applying it than older poultrymen, teaches 
them many things better and quicker than they would learn them 
any other way; and looking at the matter in this light, we cannot 
say that their doctoring is unprofitable — provided they limit it to 
cases they judge promising. In virulent diseases and difficult cases 
that would require skillful treatment and careful nursing, it is 
always better to kill the fowls that are seriously affected, and devote 
one's whole attention to preventive treatment for the rest of the 
flock. 

A great many diseases are quite readily cured by very simple 
remedies, or even by the mere removal of the cause, and by appro- 
priate diet when taken in their early stages, but very stubborn if 
neglected until they are well advanced and the recuperative powers 
of the fowl correspondingly weakened. Too often poultry keepers 
neglect treatment until the condition of the fowl becomes serious, 
though they have known from the first that the fowls needed some 
attention. 

If one is going to treat sick fowls at all, he should make it a 
rule to isolate sick birds as soon as noticed, and put them where 
he is sure general conditions are good and favorable. Very often 
fowls are kept where conditions are not satisfactory, but as long 
as no disease develops among them, may be tolerated. While a 
well fowl may stand such conditions, they aggravate disease, and 
often make the treatment adopted partly or v.'holly ineffective. The 
first step, then, should be to place the sick fowls where all sanitary 
conditions are good, and where the faults of the permanent quarters 
are offset by especially good conditions in the same line. Thus, if 
the permanent quarters are not well exposed to the sun, see that 
sick fowls taken from them are given a bright sunny place. If 
the permanent quarters are damp, be sure that the sick fowls 
removed from them are put in a dry place. If \.he fowls are kept in 
small bare yards, put the sick fowls where they have grass run if 



GOOD NUR5ING M05T IMPORTANT. 11 

possible. I might go on and give quite a long list of suggestions 
in this line. These serve to illustrate the point, and by observing 
this point the owner of a sick fowl will often make the best possi- 
ble beginning of treatment, even before he identifies the disease 
and is able to give the full specific treatment laid down in the 
books. 

As a matter of fact, good hygienic conditions and good nursing 
count for much more in the treatment of curable diseases than 
medicines. Without them medical treatment rarely effects a cure ; 
with them many cures are made without medicine, or with med- 
icines of no particular value in the case. It is quite common for 
poultrymen to mistake the character of a disease, give remedies 
according to their mistaken diagnosis, and because the fowl 
recovers, assume that the diagnosis was correct, and the treat- 
ment appropriate and effective, when the truth is that the fowl 
either would have recovered without treatment, or is restored to 
health by good nursing. 

A great many diseases can only be identified by post mortem 
examination of fowls that die, or are killed for that purpose. A 
considerable proportion of these diseases will be positively identi- 
fied only by expert examination, while cases that bafile the experts 
are by no means rare, for many cases are of irregular types, and 
a great deal remains to be done in the investigation of the dis- 
eases of poultry. These obscure cases the novice of course cannot 
give specific treatment, and unless one is quite sure he knows the 
general character of the disease, and the general line of treatment 
that should be followed, it is probably best to attempt no treatment 
whatever, merely putting the sick fowls in a comfortable place, 
supplying them with clean water and a light diet — if they will 
eat — and await developments. Otherwise the treatment given may 
aggravate the disease. 

"Reading up" on diseases, in anticipation of possible cases or 
outbreaks in the flock is well as far as it goes. It makes one some- 
what familiar with the nomenclature of the subject and with the 
most easily recognized symptoms. It is a good introduction to 
actual study and practice, but, with a case of sickness on hand, one 
never ougnt to rely on his recollection of what he has read in this 
way, but should compare the symptoms in the case with those 



12 THL COMMON-SLN5E POULTRY DOCTOR. 

given for the disease he thinks he has recognized. A great many 
undertake to doctor sick fowls on a diagnosis which considered 
but one or a few conspicuous symptoms, and go wrong, when, if 
they had consulted their authorities, they would have know^n they 
were wrong, even if they failed to discover what they needed to 
know to set them right. 

Isolated or rare instances of disease or death which cannot be 
explained need give no particular uneasiness. Many of these are 
due to accidental causes, or to conditions peculiar to the fowls 
affected and not general in the flock, and investigation in the flock 
would lead to nothing, while investigation of the individual case, 
when possible, would reveal nothing pertinent to the rest of the 
flock. In general, therefore, it is as well to give those cases no 
furthei thought. But if such a case is shortly followed by another 
similar case the poultryman should begin to watch his fowls very 
closely, and to look the premises over to see if anything is wrong. 
Then if cases continue to come, and he is still at sea about them, 
he should try to get advice. 



CHAPTER II 



Indications of Health and General Symptoms of 
Disease. 



DR. SALMON has aptly referred to a definition of disease as 
"a life, the manifestations of which deviate more or less 
from the normal." Then to detect disease we must observe a devia- 
tion from the normal. To observe such deviation we must know 
what is normal. The normal condition in one's own flock may not 
be the general, healthy normal. Very frequently it is not. There 
are many flocks that, because of unsanitary conditions or poor feed- 
ing, usually show such general symptoms which are common to 
nearly all diseases, as dullness, roughness of plumage, etc., not per- 
haps in as marked degree as in a sick fowl, but still enough to make 
the usual appearance of the fowls so different from that of fowls in 
perfect health and condition, that the first symptoms of disease are 
less conspicuous, and may pass for a long time unnoticed. This 
explains why so many poultry keepers describe as having appeared 
suddenly, symptoms which, to more experienced eyes, would have 
been plain long before, but which they did not observe until they 
became too pronounced to be overlooked by anyone. In a flock of 
fowls in vigorous health and good condition, any variation from 
the normal is immediately conspicuous. In a flock that is a little 
off in condition and appearance all through, diseases may make a 
good deal of progress before their presence is suspected. 

A healthy fowl in good condition has a confident carriage. In 
the smaller and more energetic breeds this manifests itself generally 
in alertness, energetic movements, and bustling activity. In the 
larger fowls general movements are more deliberate and dignified. 



14 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

but there is no lack of wide awakeness and business-like interest in 
life. In the medium sized breeds we get a mean between the 
activity of the light and the more serious attitude of the heavy 
breeds, but in them all the indications of soundness and good con- 
dition are easily recognized. 

The eye should be bright and clear. The skin of the face and 
comb and wattles should be smooth, pliable, and a clear red in 
color, bright red in males after the age of puberty is passed, and 
the same bright red in the females when laying. In chickens and 
in hens not laying, the comb is not so highly colored, but still 
should show a healthy red. In some game fowls, and in a few 
rare breeds, the comb is normally very dark, but in all the com- 
moner and popular breeds, the comb is a bright red, and — allowing 
for some lack of color in the combs of immature stock and hens 
that are not laying — any variation from a good red, (as a yellowish 
or purplish tinge), should be regarded with suspicion, and, having 
been noted, should be investigated. 

The feathers, except during molting, should be smooth, quite 
glossy when new, but becoming duller with age until when quite 
dead, just before the molt, they soil quickly and are not easily 
cleaned. The ordinary wear on the plumage begins to show 
slightly almost immediately after the molt, and there is a progres- 
sive deterioration of the feathers, slow at first, very rapid just 
before the molt, but healthy feathers have a life and quality that is 
absent from the plumage of fowls in poor condition, and poor 
plumage means something going wrong. 

The skin and scales of the shanks and feet should be smooth and 
clean looking. Any roughness, or a dry shriveled skin, means 
trouble, either local or as a feature of the general state of health. 
In yellow skinned fowls bad condition of feet is more noticeable 
than in others, but whatever the color of the feet, between those in 
good condition and those that fail even a little of good condition, 
the difference is very plain after having been once observed. 
When fowls are kept in dry places, especially on coal ashes or on 
alkali soils, the legs are apt to bleach badly when the skin under 
the feathers is a little affected. Under other conditions the con- 
dition of the skin of the feet generally indicates the condition of 
the skin of the body, and is a symptom not to be neglected. 



GENERAL LACK OF CONDITION. 15 

The habits of fowls also afford indications of their physical con- 
dition. The normal fowl is apt to be governed somewhat by its 
primitive instincts and natural tendencies, even when not impelled 
by necessity. Fowls that eat only what they get with little effort, 
and then remain inactive until near the next feeding time are not 
right or are not managed right. In such flocks digestive disorders 
are likely to be general. Not all — and possibly at a certain time 
none — of the fowls may have digestive trouble, but they have 
habits that develop such troubles, and therefore should be corrected. 

Sometimes inactivity or reluctance to forage are due to sore feet, 
or a beak so injured or deformed that the fowl picks up small grains 
with difficulty. Hence a bird that mopes or sits around should be 
caught and examined to find out whether any trouble of this kind 
exists. 

General lack of condition in a flock is frequently not suspected 
by a poultryman who sees closely little stock but his own, or who 
looks at it with too partial eyes. Again and again I have seen 
people in all seriousness call attention to the fine condition of their 
fowls when lack of good condition was evident all through it. As 
a rule, a poultry keeper whose fowls are subject to any bad con- 
dition, overcrowded, lack exercise, house ill ventilated, yards foul, 
houses damp, etc., needs to suspect that these have some effect on 
his fowls, and if his fowls seem all right to him, would do well to 
compare them with others that are kept under better conditions, 
and perhaps also compare notes with others. In all matters of this 
kind discussion sharpens the wits, and should make the judgment 
more accurate. 

And it is of the utmost importance that judgment in such 
matters should be correct, for while in this book on diseases we 
must pass the subject, as incidental, with a brief mention, to know 
the signs of health, and those first variations from them which indi- 
cate the presence of conditions favorable to development of disease, 
is of far greater practical value to the working poultryman than to 
know all about all diseases. Within limits, and as long as health 
continues sound, we may, in practical poultry keeping, disregard or 
depart from some of the rules of safety. Our warrant for doing 
this is the fact that the rules may be violated much or many times 
without the appearance of the possible bad consequences. We take 



16 THL COMMON-5E.N5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

risks which are justifiable or otherwise, according to our ability to 
control the situation, and this, in many cases, (if not in all), 
depends upon being able to detect the early indications of unfavor- 
able developments, and take steps to counteract them before they 
reach a serious stage. 

Delicacy either in diet or susceptibility to weather changes is a 
condition which calls for the serious consideration of the poultry 
keeper who finds it in his flock. There are many flocks extremely 
susceptible to variations in the weather, in the conditions under 
which they are kept, and even unfavorably affected by slight 
changes of diet. The number of flocks of fowls, especially those 
kept in close quarters, that become dependent on the perfect work- 
ing of the keeper's system is surprisingly large. Though there 
inay be no disease in such flocks, vitality is low and constitution 
impaired, and the stock is often reduced by outbreaks of disease 
which would have had little effect on more robust fowls. Delicacy 
in a flock calls for a more robust method of treatment. 



CHAPTER III. 



General Rules for the Prevention of Disease. 



THE first and most important requisite for the prevention of 
disease is good physical condition based on a good constitu- 
tion and preserved by good housing, yarding, feeding, and care- 
The making of a good constitution may be said to begin with 
the selection of vigorous healthy breeding stock. This means not 
simply stock that appears to be in good condition at the breeding 
season, but stock that has never at any time been seriously out of 
condition. Over and over again in the experience of thousands of 
poultry keepers it has been shown that the offspring of fowls appar- 
ently cured of a disease are peculiarly subject to that disease-, or to 
some kindred disease, and that such stock seems to succumb very 
easily to disease. It does not always happen so, but it happens so 
often, and the losses thus incurred are so serious, that old poultry- 
men are generally agreed that a fowl that has had a serious sickness 
is worse than useless as a breeder. Such a fowl, if possessed of 
special merit, might be used in a special mating, the object being 
to perpetuate his special points of excellence. And the offspring 
of such a mating, if given special care to prevent the disease the 
parent had, might escape it. Then by careful breeding and 
judicious handling tendency' to the disease might be eliminated 
from the stock, and so the original excellence preserved free from 
the original weakness, and finally introduced into the entire flock. 
But it is only one bird in a thousand that is good enough to be 
worth this trouble, and no matter how good the bird, it is a mistake 
for a breeder to rely upon a fowl that has had a sickness likely to 



18 THE. COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

alii'ect his progeny. If he breeds from such birds, it should be as 
stated above, in special matings, his regular matings being of 
fowls that had always been healthy. 

Above all, a breeder should avoid breeding from a flock all, or 
most of which had been sick, for from such breeding stock there 
is almost always a large proportion of weakly, stunted chicks that 
succumb easily to disease. 

The next thing to observe for the preservation of health is the 
natural environment — the soil and atmospheric conditions. 

On heavy or clayey soils, all filth diseases are much more trouble- 
some than elsewhere. On loose sandy, well drained soils, the 
dangers of filth diseases are so greatly reduced that the poultry 
keeper, if so disposed, may safely reduce his efforts to maintain 
strict cleanliness, often to the point of neglect of cleanliness, with- 
out serious risk. On soils of intermediate character, maintenance 
of safe sanitary conditions varies in its requirements with the 
nature of the soil. 

Atmospheric conditions are, as a rule, of less importance. Fowls 
become accustomed to a certain general atmospheric condition, or 
range of conditions, and endure without inconvenience conditions 
which, to unacclimated fowls, might be serious. The most import- 
ant point to observe in regard to atmospheric conditions is with 
unacclimated fowls. Fowls that are new to a locality, especially if 
brought from a very different climate, are often injured by exposui-e 
to weather conditions which do not hurt acclimated fowls in the 
least. To avoid diseases that might develop in this way, keep such 
fowls from exposure to the full severity of weather extremes, 
whether heat, wet, wand, or cold. 

The house problem, as it concerns health, may be made simple 
or difficult according to the system of housing adopted. 

In an open house with fresh air always abundant, what are known 
as the temperature diseases are reduced to the minimum, though in 
such houses fowls lacking in vigor are perhaps more likely to con- 
tract such diseases as pneumonia, than in warmer houses. 

In warm houses the health of the fowl depends very much upon 
the attention given to the ventilation, and not to constant ventila- 
tion through ventilators supposed to have certain desired effects, 
but to ventilation by adjustment of doors and windows to suit the 



CLEANLINL55. D1E.T, LXLRCISL. 19 

daily as well as the irregular or seasonable changes of conditions. 
Occasional neglects of doors and windows of tight houses are 
fruitful causes of disease, while the general habit of keeping such 
houses shut tight much more than is necessary, makes the average 
vitality of fowls kept in them much lower than it should be. 

The effect of cleanliness in the house on the health of the fowls 
is also influenced by the type of house used. If a house is to be 
closed tight and kept warm so that all gases and odors are retained 
in it for hours and the air laden with them, droppings should be 
removed daily. If the house is open so that odors and gases are 
carried off such frequent cleanings are not necessarj'. 

The observations already made on soils apply in a general way to 
yards. In connection with the yards we have further to consider 
such disinfection and renovation of the soil as may be necessary, 
and the effects of neglect of these upon the general condition of 
the fowls occupying the premises. Yards used too long without 
renovation are often the unsuspected cause of disease, or, where no 
disease develops, of failure of the stock to thrive. Sanitarj^ con- 
ditions must be preserved in the yard as well as in the house. 

The diet of fowls and the method of feeding them are directly 
responsible for most of the digestive disorders. We cannot take 
that subject up in this connection, but the reader should under- 
stand that only by judicious and proper feeding can he avoid the 
common troubles of poultry that are most obscure in their symp- 
toms and most difficult to deal with. 

Methods of exercising fowls are generally intimately related to 
methods of feeding them. A system of feeding that discourages 
exercise is wrong except for chickens to be marketed early, or in 
fattening. Frequently a ration that is good and safe, if given to 
fowls that exercise freely, is a regular disease breeder for fowls 
that take little exercise. A most conspicuous illustration of this 
is found in the case of corn, which, fed under proper conditions, 
is a most satisfactory food, but when fed in disregard of appro- 
priate conditions quickly puts fowls out of condition. 

Overcrowding, when very bad, is likely to breed disease ; when 
not so bad its results are more likely to be limited to lack of thrift 
or productiveness. 

Contagious diseases are most frequently introduced into a floclc 



20 THL COMMON-5EN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

with additions from outside. It is a good plan not to allow new 
stock to mingle with the old for at least ten days to two weeks after 
it is brought on the place. This rule should be followed even with 
stock from flocks known to be free from disease, for it often 
happens that disease germs, latent and harmless in one flock, 
become active and dangerous when stock from that flock is moved 
to another place. Two weeks should give ample time for develop- 
ment of latent disease, and if no bad symptoms appear within 
that time, the new stock may be put with the old. 

The introduction of new males during the breeding season is a 
risk many poultrymen take without thought, and subsequently have 
abundant occasion to regret. At that season the delay caused by 
quarantining a new bird needed for service seems intolerable, and 
the breeder frequently puts him into the breeding pen without much 
examination. From such an event many a poultryman dates a long 
period of trouble with parasitic or skin disease introduced with the 
new male, and by him rapidly communicated to all females with 
which he comes in contact. 

As far as possible the poultry keeper should depend for the pre- 
vention of disease on conditions which make for health rather than 
upon special correctives of unhealthy conditions. Those who must 
keep fowls in close quarters must rely much upon disinfectants 
and strict attention to hygienic conditions. Those who give fowls 
liberal yard room need give less attention to sanitation. The 
difference between the two systems quite closely parallels certain 
differences between farm and city life, between sparsely settled and 
densely populated areas. Give nature room and she attends to 
sanitation and various other matters relating to health, in her own 
way. Crowd beings of any kind together, and special, and some- 
times artificial and complex sanitary systems and requirements 
become necessary. 



CHAPTER rV. 



The Symptoms of Disease. 



SOME diseases are distinguished easily by peculiar and unmis- 
takable symptoms. Some general symptoms are common 
to a great many diseases. Some frequent symptoms are common 
to diseases of certain classes, and make it sometimes very difficult 
to distinguish between them. Of some diseases the symptoms are 
obscure, not especially manifested in outward appearance or in any 
function, and distinguishable only by post mortem examination — 
often only by expert examination. Occasionally a disease develops 
which baffles the most careful examination to determine its precise 
character. 

Diseases are not always simple and free from complications. 
Hence the combinations of symptoms found are sometimes very 
puzzling, especially to a layman with no intimate knowledge of the 
subject. 

Diseases, as they develop in the poultry yard, are rarely " typical " 
cases, presenting all symptoms of one disease plainly, and no 
others. It is perhaps more common to find one or more symptoms 
absent, or to find some symptoms varying greatly from the usual 
type, and even more closely resembling symptoms in some quite 
different disease. Hence, apart from the diseases having unmis- 
takable symptoms the diagnosis of diseases, even by men of 
medical training, is often inaccurate, while that of the common 
poultryman is apt to be wrong as often as right. However, if 
diagnosis is correct in half, or even less, of the cases discovered, 
and the disease given proper treatment at an early stage, and proper 
steps taken to prevent its spread through the flock, and measures 
adopted to prevent its recurrence, much has been gained. 



22 THE COMMON-5LN5E POULTRY DOCTOR. 

The more common and most generally troublesome of the dis- 
eases showing no plain symptoms outwardly it is possible even for 
a novice to identify by post mortem with sufficient accuracy to 
enable him to give preventive and dietary treatment adapted to the 
situation. 

In this chapter I have undertaken — 

I. — To arrange and group the visible symptoms of the diseases 
of poultry in such a way that a poultryman may more systematically 
and carefully observe the symptoms of sick fowls ; also be able to 
distinguish between general and special symptoms. 

2. — To briefly indicate the post mortem symptoms, especially of 
diseases not characterized by outward symptoms. 

In preparing the list of symptoms from Avhich the schedule which 
follows has been compiled, I have used principally Salmon's 
"Diseases of Poultry," supplementing it here and there from state- 
ments in Sanborn's "Farm-Poultry Doctor," Vale's "Manual of 
Poultry Diseases," Hill's " Diseases of Poultry," various articles 
on diseases in the poultry journals, especially those by Woods, and, 
occasionally, from personal observation indicating symptoms or 
facts which our medical authorities have overlooked. 

Visible Symptoms of Disease. 

Symptoms in the Attitude and General Condition of Fowls. 

The impulse or instinct of a fowl affected with a disease which 
makes it feel sick is to remain quiet and out of the way of the rest 
of the flock. This disposition manifests itself differently in differ- 
ent fowls and different circumstances, and is also probably some- 
what influenced by the degree of indisposition. Hence all fowls 
sick with the same disease do not act alike, and while weak?tess, 
dullness, drovjsiness, inactivity^ sluggishness, etc., are given as 
symptoms in many diseases, they are, as a rule, symptoms of no 
particular value in determining the character of the disease. We 
note, further, that as between these many terms signifying much 
the same things, it is practically impossible to make fine dis- 
tinctions. The same observer might, at different times, describe 
the same condition by different terms, or apply the same term to 
different degrees of debility. So, though we find in the descrip- 
tions of symptoms furnished by authorities on poultry diseases, a 



SYMPTOMS IN THL APPEARANCE OF FOWLS. 23 

great variety of terms indicating weakness as variously manifested 
in the general attitude of the foAvl, and these -will be noted in the 
full descriptions of sj^mptoms ; they are to be regarded as of only 
minor importance in the diagnosis of disease. 

The terms used to indicate visible lack of condition, and the dis- 
eases with which each is identified by our authorities, are : — 

Dullness — symptom in bronchitis, catarrh, indigestion, gas- 
tritis, enteritis, constipation, worms, atrophy of the liver. 

Drowsiness — symptom in aspergillosis, atrophy of the liver, 
congestion of the lungs, leukaemia. 

Depression — sj'mptom in enteritis. 

DuMPisHNESS — symptom in canker. 

Sluggishness — symptom in inflammation of the liver, eczema. 

Stupor — symptom in atrophy of the liver, vertigo. 

Torpor — symptom in enteritis. 

Inactivity — symptom in catarrh, black rot, diarrhea, enlarge- 
ment of the testicles. 

Weakness — symptom in cholera, dropsy of the heart. 

Extreme Weakness — symptom in aspergillosis. 

General Debility — symptom in inflammation of the oviduct. 

General Lassitude — symptom in enteritis. 

Rapid Loss of Strength — symptom in peritonitis. 

Listlessness — symptom in dropsy. 

Isolation — symptom in worms, cholera. 

Difficult Locomotion — symptom in constipation. 

Stiff Walk — symptom in worms. 

Rough Plumage — symptom in cholera, worms, leukaemia, gas- 
tritis, gapes, diarrhea, constipation, aspergillosis. 

As everyone who has observed many sick fowls knows, this list 
by no means exhausts the possibilities. There is practically na 
limit to the variations of arrangement of such symptoms and names 
of diseases that will make statements easily applied to many cases. 
We therefore class all such symptoms as general symptom-" not 
peculiar to particular diseases. Such symptoms are generally the 
first noted by the quick observer. They indicate a diseased con- 
dition ; but having learned this much through them, we may dis- 
miss them from further consideration as more likely to confuse 
than to aid attempts at diagnosis. 



24 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Emaciation — is a symptom of more importance in determining 
the character of a disease, because it usually indicates the 
presence of one of several most difficult diseases to deal 
with, and is in each the most conspicuous symptom. 
These diseases are tuberculosis, asthenia, (" going light"), 
iind anaemia, (called by Salmon, leukaemia). Emaciation 
is also noted as a symptom in aspergillosis, inflammation 
of the kidneys, gastritis, enteritis, worms. Such are the 
diseases in which it is most frequently observed, but it 
may be a symptom in any disease which a fowl resists for 
a long time, and, of course, is also seen as a condition in 
many cases where a thin, emaciated fowl contracts disease. 

Symptoms in the Actions of Fowls. 

Under this head I group a class of symptoms which rarely escape 
the notice of even the least experienced of poultry keepers. The 
most conspicuous of them is convulsions, or convulsive move- 
ments, principally of the head and neck, though frequently affecting 
in a lesser degree the body as well, and occasionally of such nature 
that the bird entirely loses control of the limbs, and either lies 
helpless or with limbs moving spasmodically. 

Convulsive Movements of the Head and Neck — occur in 
cramps, gapes, and frequently in large combed birds in 
common colds. Movements which might appear to be 
convulsions are sometimes a symptom in various diseases, 
such, for instance, as a swallowing motion when neither 
food nor drink is being taken. Such movements, while to 
some degree similar, are not convulsive, for they are under 
control of the bird, and made with a purpose. 
A Swallowing Motion Without Convulsions — indicates 
accumulation of mucus in throat and windpipe, or obstruc- 
tion of those parts. 
Convulsions — are common, but not invariably a symptom in 
epilepsy, atrophy of the liver, vertigo, worms, enteritis, 
and in the last stages of peritonitis, and cholera. 
A Swallowing Motion Accompanied by a Writhing — espe- 
cially of the upper part of the body, is a symptom in crop 
bound. 



SYMPTOMS IN THE ACTIONS OF FOWLS. 25 

Giddiness and Staggering — mentioned as symptoms in ver- 
tigo and enteritis, are features of convulsions ; while chills, 
also given as a symptom in enteritis, would not readily be 
differentiated from convulsions. The head twisted and 
eye turned up, while the fowl moves in a circle, is a 
symptom of vertigo. 

Contraction of the Muscles — sometimes observable in the 
toes, sometimes in the neck, is a symptom of rheumatism. 
When this symptom appears, affecting the neck, it is 
usually twisted and drawn back between the shoulders. 

Lameness and Loss of Use of the Legs — are symptoms 
quickly noted; both occur in succession or alternation in 
leg weakness and rheumatism. Lameness may also occur 
with, and as a result of the various symptoms of diseases 
of the feet, and is frequently the result of injury to the 
feet, legs, or back. 

Restlessness — indicating fever, is a symptom in peritonitis. 

Gaping — symptom in gapes, enteritis. 

Symptoms in the Appearance or Condition of Special 
Parts of the Fowl. 

Under this head we consider local symptoms, not conspicuously 
connected with any important function, leaving functional symp- 
toms to be taken up separately a little further on. 
Head Symptoms. 
In a way the appearance of the head of the fowl is a factor in 
such general symptoms as dullness, drowsiness, emaciation. A 
good observer may note something wrong in the expression of thfe 
eye, or appearance of the head, before the general appearance of the 
bird is unusual enough to attract attention. Such symptoms as 
those we need not consider further than in the general way. The 
conspicuous symptoms of the head parts, and the diseases or con- 
ditions they indicate are : — 

Of the Comb. 
Comb, Pale — symptom in leukaemia, (anaemia), dropsy, tuber- 
culosis, enteritis. In these diseases the paleness of the comb 
is generally very noticeable. In many others there is much 
less color in the comb than when the bird is in good health. 



26 THE. COMMON-5LN5E. POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Comb, Dark, Purplish — symptom in congestion of the lungs, 
enteritis ; sometimes in bronchitis. 

A distinction must be made between the dark purplish 
comb seen in these diseases and the comb the tips of 
which turn bluish when chilled. 

Comb, Purple, or Tips Turning Blue, then Black— symp- 
tom in black rot. 

Scab on Comb — a dark or yellowish patch or scab which can- 
not readily be removed, is a symptom of ulceration of 
comb. This symptom must be distinguished from a 
simple scab, the result of an injury. 

Wattles Enlarged and Hard — symptom in dropsy of the 
wattles. 

Wattles Having White Points or Patches which enlarge 
and run together — symptom in eczema. 

Yellow Warts on Face and Comb — symptom in chicken- 
pox. 

Cheesy Lumps About the Eyes — symptom in roup. 

Eyelids Gummed and Swollen — symptom in catarrh. 

Jaundice — symptom in inflammation of the liver. 

Puffing and Swelling of the Face — symptom in roupy colds. 

Inflammation of Mouth — symptom in gastritis and roup. 

Inflamed Mucous Membranes — symptom in bronchitis. 

Grayish White Membranous Patches in Throat — symptom 
in diphtheria. 

Pip, scale on tongue — symptom in catarrh, roup, bronchitis, 
pneumonia. 

Feather Symptoms. 

Loss of Feathers from parts of the body — symptom in 
favus. 

Feathers Breaking at the surface of the skin indicates scabies. 

Improperly Developed Feathers — deform.ed feathers, indicate 
inflammation of the kidneys. Feathers are also lost, 
broken, or damaged by other fowls eating them, generally 
from the rump and neck ; and from the backs of hens in 
the breeding season by the wear of the feet of the males. 



SKIN AND FOOT SYMPTOMS. BRLATHING. 27 

Skin Symptoms (of the Body). 

Skin Puffed With Air — symptom of emphysema. 

Scurfy Thickened Skin — symptom in favus. 

The skin of any part of the body bare of feathers, and 
exposed to sun and wind, turns quite a dark or bright red ; 
if the skin, notwithstanding its high color, seems clean 
and healthy, it is probably not in any way diseased, and 
will return to its normal color after the feathers grow on it. 

Tumors and Sores — generally result from injuries, though I 

have seen and also had reports of boil like sores on fowls 

which seemed to be identical with boils on the human 

person, and probably due to similar conditions or causes. 

Leg and Foot Symptoms. 

Thickened Skin of under side of feet — corns. 

Swelling on Foot — bumble foot. 

Abscesses on soles of feet and between toes — symptom in 
bumble foot. 

Swollen Feet and Toes — dropsy of the feet. 

Swollen Joints — rheumatism. 

Skin of Legs Dry and Rough — symptom in fish skin disease. 

Scales of Shanks and Toes Loose raised, with dead whitish 
crust forming under them — symptom of scaly leg. 
Visible Symptoms in Functional Operations — Breathing. 

Normally the function of breathing attracts no attention what- 
ever. Anything out of the usual in this connection is therefore 
an indication of something wrong. 

Rapid Breathing — is a symptom in gastritis. 

Difficult Breathing — is noted in catarrh, dropsy of the heart, 
congestion of the lungs. 

Labored Breathing — symptom in aspergillosis. 

To make nice distinctions between difficult and labored breath- 
ing is often impossible. 

A Whistling Sound — in breathing indicates bronchitis or 
defective air passages. 

Sneezing — is a symptom in catarrh. 

A peculiar croaking sneeze is often made by fowls when eating 
too rapidly. 



28 THE COMMON-5LNSE. POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Head Discharges. 

Watery Discharge from Nostrils — symptom in catarrhal 
cold, catarrh. 

Fermenting Sour, Watery Discharge from the Nose and 
Mouth — symptom sometimes in crop bound. 

Mucus Discharge from Nostrils and Mouth — occasional 
symptom in gapes. 

Fetid Discharge from Nostrils (having the " roup smell," 
a peculiar nauseating odor which, once observed, is ever 
afterward easily distinguished) — symptom in roup, con- 
tagious catarrh, sometimes in diphtheria. 

Frothy Discharge from the Mouth — symptom in enteritis. 

Bloody Mucus from Mouth — symptom in congestion of the 
lungs. 

Belching Gas — symptom of catarrh of the crop. 

Water Escaping from the Crop Through the Mouth — 
when fowl is held head down is not a symptom of disease 
unless the discharged fluid is sour or foul, when it indicates 
a bad condition of the crop. 

Appetite. 

Irregular Appetite — indicates overfeeding, indigestion, or, 
(not infrequently), food poorly prepared or of poor quality. 
Lack of Appetite — is given as a symptom in worms, constipa- 
tion, catarrh, bronchitis, and enteritis. 
Loss OF Appetite — is given as a symptom in aspergillosis, 
black rot, diarrhea, enteritis, gastritis, inflammation of the 
kidneys, leukaemia, peritonitis, inflammation of the liver. 
Whether lack of appetite means poor appetite, and loss of appetite 
no appetite, is not clear. Probably the distinction is not always 
carefully observed. Appetite symptoms would not be expected to 
be uniform in the same disease, for fowls, like people, vary much 
in regard to the appetite in sickness. Considered by themselves, 
appetite symptoms are of little, if any, use in determining the 
character of most of the diseases mentioned in connection with 
them. 

Abnormal Appetite — fowls frequently display abnormal appe- 
tites, eat voraciously of food from which they apparently 



APPETITE, CROP AND BOWEL SYMPTOMS. 29 

extract little nourishment, or take excessive quantities of 
such food accessories as grit. Such phenomena indicate 
diseased condition in the digestive tract, but our authori- 
ties have little to say about them. They are probably 
properly described as extreme symptoms of indigestion. 

Intense Thirst — is mentioned as a symptom in gastritis, 
aspergillosis, enteritis, cholera, but will be observed in 
many other diseases. In any case of disease accompanied 
by a fever, or feverish conditions, marked thirst is likely 
to be found. 

The Crop. 

The Crop Distended and Hard — is "crop bound." The 
crop bound condition may be due to obstruction of the 
crop, or to disease of the crop or digestive tract, preventing 
the regular passage of food through the system. 

Crop Bound is a symptom in catarrh of the crop, sometimes in 
diarrhea, and in cholera. 

When the Crop is Prominent and Hangs Loosely — the fowl 
is said to have " slack crop." 

Vent Discharges. 

Diarrhea is a symptom in a great many diseases. It may 
have no special significance, or it may, by certain peculiar- 
ities, be of great assistance in identifying a disease. The 
following forms of diarrhea have been described : — 

Simple Diarrhea — itself a form of disease — symptom, excre- 
ment soft, yellowish, whitish, or greenish. 

Many people call every case of disease in which there is diarrhea 
with greenish excrement " cholera," and many reported cures of 
cholera are merely cures of simple diarrhea. Simple diarrhea has 
been observed as a symptom in cases of worms, tuberculosis, and 
in black head in turkeys. 

Bloody Diarrhea — symptom in enteritis, appendicitis. 

Diarrhea with Dark Excrement Turning to Yellow — 
symptom in black rot. 

Greenish Diarrhea with Solid Excrement — symptom in 
early stages of bacterial enteritis. 

Greenish Diarrhea with Excrement Dark and Liquid — 
symptom in later stages of bacterial enteritis. 



30 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Diarrhea with Yellow Urates (the white part of the excre- 
ment of birds) — symptom in cholera. Salmon says that 
while yellow urates do not invariably indicate cholera, 
because the urates are frequently tinted from other dis- 
orders, they afford a valuable indication. It is to be 
inferred from his statement that while yellow urates occur 
in other diseases, they invariably occur in cholera in the 
early stages ; hence, if urates are not yellow it may be con- 
cluded that the disease is not cholera unless we have : 

Diarrhea WITH Greenish or Deep Green Urates — a symp- 
tom of the later stages of cholera ; or 

Diarrhea in Which White Urates are Passed m Very 
Large Quantities, the excrement consisting almost 
entirely of urates mixed with colorless mucus. Such a 
diarrhea has been observed as a very early symptom in 
several cases of cholera. This diarrhea gradually chang- 
ing, the urates becoming deep yellow, and finally green. 

Constipation — occurs in fowls far less often than diarrhea, 
and often passes unnoticed when it does occur, unless very 
bad. Painful and ineffective efforts to evacuate the bowel 
are the symptom of constipation. Frequently the affected 
fowl cries with pain. 

Constipation — is a symptom in indigestion, (dyspepsia), gas- 
tritis, peritonitis. 

Other Bowel Discharges. 

A Thin Watery Discharge — soon becoming white and offen- 
sive, frequent passage of small quantities of excrement, the 
membrane of the bowel much inflamed, with the inflamma- 
tion often extending to skin around the vent, are symptoms 
in vent gleet. This should not be confounded with a 
simple whitish diarrhea. 

Symptoms Associated with Laying. 

Unsuccessful Efforts to Pass Egg, the egg being some- 
times partially extruded ; sometimes not at all — symptom 
of egg bound. 

Egg Lodged Loosely in Abdominal Cavity — symptom of 
rupture of the oviduct. 



P05T MORTEM SYMPTOMS. 31 

Abnormal Laying, continued production of abnormal eggs, 
— symptom of inflammation of oviduct. 

Protrusion at the Vent — in laying hens a symptom of pro- 
lapsus of the oviduct ; occurs occasionally in fowls under 
other circumstances, is then protrusion of the bowel. 

Sudden Deaths — symptom of rupture of the heart, apoplexy, 
choking. 

Symptoms Discovered by a Post flortem Exam^ 

ination. 

Importance of Noting Inward Symptoms. 

Some diseases readily identified by outward symptoms have only 
those outward symptoms ; others have also peculiar internal symp- 
toms. A few diseases can be identified only by post mortem exam- 
ination. When a disease is presumed to have been correctly 
diagnosed by the outward symptoms a post mortem would be 
made only to clear up any lingering doubts one might have as to 
the correctness of his conclusions. When the outward symptoms 
noted seem insufficient for diagnosis the poultryman who wants to 
know what was wrong generally " opens" the body of the fowl and 
examines the internal organs. Some of the most common diseases 
are readily identified in this way by anyone, but there are many 
cases beyond the skill of the layman to identify, and, as has already 
been said, some that the experts have to give up. Generally, how- 
ever, in case of a common disease anyone can learn enough of the 
condition of the fowl, and of the parts affected, to know to what 
class of causes the trouble is probably due, to what class of disease 
it belongs, and what general course is best to pursue with fowls 
affected by or exposed to it; and this, after all, is the principal 
thing. If one is not familiar with the appearance of the organs of 
a healthy fowl he should, when making a post mortem examination 
of a fowl that had died of a disease the character of which he 
wishes to discover, kill and examine a fowl apparently in perfect 
condition, that, comparing them part by part, he may more cer- 
tainly arrive at the facts. More, a poultry keeper who does not 
know what the internal organs of a healthy fowl look like, should 
lose no time acquiring that knowledge, but take advantage of 



32 THE COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

the first opportunity to examine them, and as fowls or chicks from 
his yards are killed, ought to observe the condition of the 
internal organs of the fowl, just as day by day he notes outward 
symptoms, for in this way one will often discover the presence in 
his flock of a disease without marked outward symptoms in time to 
adopt effectual preventive measures when, if the disease continued 
unsuspected until several deaths from it had occurred, many more 
members of the flock might be past saving. 

How to Make a Post Mortem Examination of a Fowl. 

In the case of a healthy fowl to be used for the table after having 
served as a subject for examination, the way the fowl is intended to 
be cooked might be allowed to determine the method of making 
examination. If a fowl is to be cut up before cooking, it is a 
simple matter to remove Avings and legs, and then by separating the 
breast and back leave the organs exposed, but undisturbed, and the 
examiner can remove and inspect them as he wishes. If the carcass 
is to be drawn in the usual way, it is not so easy to make a satisfac- 
tory observation of the internal organs, as they cannot be observed 
in position, but still one can learn a good deal of their appearance 
and condition if they are removed carefully. 

If the examination of the healthy carcass is desired to contribute 
as much as possible to the acquisition of skill in the examination 
and treatment of diseased fowls, it is well to make it in the same 
■way that the post mortem would be made on a dead fowl. It is 
obvious that the "butcher" methods of examination mentioned 
above are very crude methods from a surgical point of view. One 
of the best directions I have seen for making a post mortem exam- 
ination of a fowl was given in an English poultry paper recently. 

It is :— 

" Take the dead bird and lay it on a wooden table, or on a piece 
of strong board, breast uppennost. Spread out the wings and the 
legs, putting a small nail through the joint of each wing and 
through the center of each foot. It is not necessary for the bird to 
be entirely plucked ; it will be enough to pluck the breast, and 
when this has been done pinch up the skin at the point of the 
breast bone, and cut it straight through from the vent to the crop. 
Having done this, draw the skin back on both sides, so as to leave 



LIVER SYMPTOMS. 33 

the flesh fullj exposed, and then with a sharp knife cut through the 
flesh on both sides of the breast bone, and with a strong, blunt 
pointed pair of scissors, cut out the center of the breast bone 
entirely, taking particular care in doing so not to injure the heart, 
as a flow of blood from tne neart will interfere with subsequent 
operations. When this has been done the principal organs will be 
seen fuUj exposed." 

Liver Symptoms. 

Liver troubles are by far the most frequent of diseases requiring 
a post mortem for identification. Perhaps the most common con- 
dition of the diseased liver is : 

Liver Enlarged, gorged with blood, tender, easily torn or 
crushed — indicates inflammation or congestion of the liver. 

Liver Shrunken, with granulated surface — atrophy or wast- 
ing of the liver. 

Liver Shrunken, hardened, marbled, or spotted with j'ellow 
or gray patches — fatty degeneration of liver. 

Liver Somewhat Enlarged, dark colored, surface sprinkled 
with minute grayish spots — symptom in leukaemia. 

Liver Greatly Enlarged, softened, very dark, or dark 
green, gall abundant — symptom in cholera. 

Liver (in Turkeys) Spotted, with whitish or yellowish or 
brownish patches — symptom in blackhead. 

Sometimes the same condition or symptom is discovered in the 
liver and other organs, or certain conditions of other organs occur 
with certain liver symptoms. 

Abscesses in liver, lungs, kidneys, and spleen are sym.ptoms 
in aspergillosis. 

Liver Enlarged and distended with blood, spleen enlarged 
and pale, intestines, particularly the cjeca, red and contain- 
ing much mucus — symptom in enteritis. 

Whitish or Yellowish nodules or tubercles in liver, spleen, 
and peritoneum — symptom in tuberculosis. 

Bile, Black, Thick and Hard — symptom sometimes found in 
biliary repletion (jaundice). 

Bile Coloring Organs adjoining gall bladder — symptom in 
biliary repletion (jaundice). 



34 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Special symptoms in the kidneys are neither so frequent nor so 
conspicuous. 

Kidneys Much Enlarged, grayish colored and hard — symp- 
tom in inflammation of the kidneys. 

Kidneys Gorged with Blood — symptom in cholera. 

In the lungs symptoms of several bad diseases are found. To 
test the condition of the lungs put a piece of one in water ; a healthy 
lung will float, a diseased one will sink. 

Lungs Dark, full of blood, and hard — symptom in pneumonia. 

Lungs Containing Cheesy Nodules — symptom in tuber- 
culosis. 

Yellowish or Whitish Nodules in internal organs, espe- 
cially the organs of respiration — symptom in aspergillosis. 

In cases of sudden death the symptoms that explain the trouble 
are likely to be found in the heart. 

Heart Uneven Lobed, large on one side and small on the 
other — symptom of failure or rupture of the heart, (syn- 
cope), hypertrophy. 

Heart Sac Distended with liquid with false membrane 
adhering to heart and heart sac — dropsy of the heart sac. 

Internal Surface of Heart Reddened and deposits of 
clotted lymph adhering to it — inflammation of the internal 
membrane of the heart. 

Internal Hemorrhages — rupture of heart or blood vessels. 

Intestinal Walls Thickened and Ulcerated — symptom 
in tuberculosis. 

Nodules Whitish, Yellowish, or Brownish in Intestinal 
Walls — symptom in nodular tseniasis. 

Lining of Abdominal Cavity Inflamed deep red in color — 
peritonitis. 

Yellowish or Reddish Yellow LiqyiD in Abdominal 
Cavity — peritonitis. 

Worms in Intestines — Worms are most frequently found in 
the intestines, though they infest other internal parts. 
Sometimes conditions produced by worms resemble symp- 
toms of tuberculosis. 

Worms in Windpipe, or trachea — gapes. 



SYMPTOMS IN ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION. 35 

Mite Like Powder, whitish or yellowish in color, on surface 

of air sacs — air sac mite. 
The condition of the ovaries of the female, and testicles of the 
male often reveal the reason for the failure of the hen to lay, or for 
the laying of abnormal eggs, and for sterileness in males. 

Ovaries Small with Ova (Eggs) Very Small — is a natural 
condition in a hen not laying or about to lay. Discovered 
in a hen which failed to lay naturally, it indicates atrophy 
of the ovaries. 
Tumors of the Ovary are quite common. 

Ova Brownish or Black, easily crusted and containing a 
putrid liquid — gangrene of the ovary. 

Corresponding with these diseases of the female organs of repro- 
duction, we have in the male organs : 

Atrophied and Enlarged Testicles, and sometimes tumor- 
ous or cancerous growths. Any deviation from normal 
condition of these organs will furnish an explanation for 
sterility, or low fertility. 



CHAPTER V. 



A Few General Remarks on the Diseases of Poultry 
and Their Treatment. 



IT HELPS to a better understanding of the diseases of poultry, 
and their prevention and cure, to know that most of the dis- 
eases of poultry have their counterparts in cause, character, and 
effects in human diseases. This fact is not generally appreciated 
as it should be. Many people are wont to regard themselves and 
their fowls as so far apart in the scale of development that there can 
be little in common between them. A physician once wrote me 
asking what to do for a constipated fowl. I replied : " Give the 
same dose you would a two year old child." By return mail I 
received a letter to this effect : " Thank you for the suggestion. It 
never occurred to me that the diseases of fowls and human beings 
were essentially alike, and should be treated the same, but when 
you stop to think of it, there is no reason why they should not be. 
I don't think I'll need to trouble you again about treating diseases." 
The similarity of diseases in fowls and men is less clear than it 
might be because of the differences in names of diseases, because it 
has been customary to group many poultry diseases under a general 
name, and because it is only recently that poultry diseases have 
been carefully investigated, and the different forms of disease affect- 
ing the same parts differentiated. Structural and other peculiari- 
ties of fowls account for slightly different manifestations of symp- 
toms, and also for a few diseases that are peculiar to fowls ; but, 
on the whole, any disease discovered in the poultry yard has its 
counterpart among human diseases, is produced by like causes, and 
requires much the same treatment to effect a cure. 



PRINCIPAL CAU5L5 OF DI5LA5E.. 37 

Chapter II. treated briefly the general causes of disease, with 
special reference to the prevention of disease. In various chapters 
following this the development of numerous diseases from a 
common cause will be traced in connection with the categorical 
presentation of causes, symptoms, and treatment. In this chapter 
I wish, as preliriinary to the treatment of each disease, or group 
of diseases, as a special topic, to bring together in a short classifi- 
cation some of the most common causes of disease and the diseases 
which develop from them, the purpose of this grouping being to 
afford the reader a bird's eye view of the subject, and enable him to 
see more clearly the relations between various diseases, and their 
connection with common causes. 

With rare exceptions, cases of disease occurring in a flock of 
poultry will be promptly traced by a qualified investigator to one or 
more of these prime causes of disease : 
I.— Colds. 

2. — Improper feeding. 
3. — Improper conditions. 
4. — Contagion. 

Beginning from colds we have a group of diseases affecting 
mostly the organs of respiration. Most of these it has long been 
customary to designate by one common term — roup. 

From colds also develop catarrhal conditions of the digestive 
organs, which are probably the real, though unsuspected cause of 
many cases of digestive disorders occurring where no fault can be 
found with the feeding. 

To colds, and conditions which cause colds, are traced such dis- 
eases as catarrh, bronchitis, congestion of the lungs, pneumonia. 

To colds, and conditions which cause colds, operating with con- 
tagion, are traced such diseases as diphtheritic roup, tuberculosis. 

To improper feeding, or improper feeding and improper con- 
ditions, or either or both of these, and contagion, are traced nearly 
all the commoner diseases affecting the crop, stomach, liver, and 
some of those affecting the intestines. Often a derangement of 
one organ or function becomes responsible for derangement of other 
organs or functions. In fact, disorder in one organ or function, if 
it continues, is not likely to be long confined to that one locality, 
for the organs of the body are mutually dependent upon each other, 



38 THE COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

and derangement of one affects others, and also reacts upon the 
system in general. 

Contagion as the sole cause, or as prime cause, with colds, or 
conditions which cause colds and reduce vitality; improper feeding, 
and improper conditions, as contributing causes, is responsible for 
a long list of troubles : — Parasites of the skin and of internal 
organs — for lice, mites, worms; for skin diseases, venereal dis- 
eases, scaly legs ; for chicken pox, tuberculosis, cholera, diph- 
theria, contagious catarrh, enteritis, etc. 

As we find that a case of disease is rarely simple, regular, and 
typical, so we find many cases of disease resulting from combina- 
tions of causes, each of which alone might produce the disease, and 
would produce it in some fowls, while other fowls might succumb 
only to the combined effects of several causes, all tending to pro- 
duce that disease. 

It is important to keep this in mind when referring to advices 
about diseases, for the first step in the treatment or prevention of 
further spread of many diseases is to remove the cause, or causesj,, 
and one of the most common causes of failure in the treatment of 
diseases which should yield readily to treatment, is to remove one 
cause, but leave others to continue their effects, and neutralize the 
effects of treatment given. 

Suppose a disease is known to be correctly diagnosed, the symp- 
toms being unmistakable. Suppose there are two or three possible 
causes for this disease, and that all of them happen to be present. 
Suppose that — as is very often the case — the poultry keeper 
assumes that the cause which is most conspicuous to him is the 
cause in this case, removes it, gives the prescribed treatment, and 
fails to see improvement. He may be right about the cause. That 
is a matter it would be difficult or impossible to either prove or 
disprove. But whether the other causes had anything to do with 
producing the disease or not, after it has developed they may tend 
especially to aggravate it, and prevent recovery. 

Bearing this in mind the reader should carefully note every pos- 
sible cause of the disease he has to deal with, decide whether or not 
it is present; observe whether any part of the treatment recom- 
mended applies to it, and see that every requirement is met in the 
treatment as he gives it. 



RLMLDIL5 TO KE.EP ON HAND. 39 

The Importance of Being Prepared. 

The effective treatment of cases it pays to treat will often depend 
much on the promptness with which they are taken in hand. It is 
not too much to say that promptness and thoroughness are the 
most important factors in the treatment of the majority of cases. 
What counts most is doing the things that need to be done to give 
nature a chance, and doing them without delay. In many cases a 
few applications or the regular use of a simple remedy in the early 
stages are well worth while, when, if the case is neglected until it 
develops to a serious stage, treatment would be troublesome, com- 
paratively expensive, and results doubtful. 

If one is going to doctor sick fowls, he should be prompt always, 
and in every situation where a mild disease might quickly develop 
into a more serious one, should be very prompt to treat it. Such 
promptness depends on being able to get the remedies required 
without delay, and unless a poultry keeper is so situated that he can 
get the things he may want in such an emergency at short notice, 
it is a good plan for him to keep on hand a few of the articles or 
preparations most likely to be needed. For those who wish to do 
this I give here such a list. It will be noted that a considerable 
number of the articles specified are articles kept in almost every 
household. Hence the number of things to procure especially for 
treatment of poultry is quite small. 
Vaseline (veterinary vaseline Carbolic acid. 

preferred). Peroxide hydrogen. 

Lard. Boric acid. 

Glycerine. Bicarbonate soda ( baking soda). 

Castor oil. Subnitrate of bismuth. 

Sweet oil. Sulphate of iron. 

Olive oil. Tincture bryonia. 

Kerosene oil. Tincture spongia. 

Linseed oil (raw). Tincture aconite. 

Turpentine. Salicylic acid. 

Alcohol. Quinine. 

Camphor (spirits of). Epsom salts. 

Creolin. Calomel. 

Sulpho-naphthol. Chloro-naphtholeum. 



40 THE, COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

With the articles in this list available from stock kept for other 
purposes, or on hand in small supply, the poultry keeper is pre- 
pared to treat fully nine-tenths of the cases of disease that may 
develop in his poultry yard, and prepared, I think, to treat all 
urgent cases in which treatment is likely to be profitable. 

If one prefers to do so he may equip himself with a case of 
poultry remedies as put up by different dealers in poultry supplies, 
or with the special remedies advertised for special diseases, or 
classes of diseases, or may keep these on hand as well as the 
common articles mentioned in the above list. Having decided for 
what condition or disease he will treat, one may use a "specific" 
or proprietary remedy rather than follow the prescriptions given in 
this book, if he prefers to do so. Most of them I suppose con- 
tain the same medicinal properties as the remedies given by the 
authorities. Some I know are compounded after formulas fur- 
nished by physicians familiar with the diseases of poultry. A few 
are put up and sold by physicians who are also poultrymen. 



CHAPTER VI 



Colds and Diseases that Begin with Colds. 



IT HAS been customary for a great many years to group nearly 
all the diseases which might be considered under the heading 
of this chapter together under the common name roup. All these 
diseases were not called everywhere alike "roup," but each one of 
them was called " roup " by a great many people, and many applied 
the term "roup" to a number of different diseases, making no 
discrimination between different diseases exhibiting head and 
mouth symptoms. 

In recent years there has come a tendency to make proper dis- 
criminations, and though the divisions and classifications of dis- 
eases by authorities differ somewhat, the situation in this respect 
is much improved, the chief drawback at present being the lack of 
familiarity among poultrymen with the nomenclature used. A 
number of diseases have no common name, and the descriptive 
technical names given them not meaning anything in particular to 
the average layman, he is generally not disposed to familiarize him- 
self with them and make the corresponding distinctions between 
forms of disease. At present I find most poultry keepers calling 
both contagious catarrh, (to which the authorities seem agreed to 
limit the term "roup"), and diphtheritic roup or diphtheria roup; 
quite at a loss what to call or what to do with the diseases of this 
group, not characterized by a foul odor, and so often imagining a 
" mysterious disease," when they have nothing worse to deal with 
than a common cold. 



42 THL COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

The Common Developments of Colds in Fowls. 

These are : — 

1. — Common colds, called simple catarrhal colds. 

2. — Bronchitis, or croup. 

3. — Contagious catarrh — roup. 

4. — Influenza. 

5. — Diphtheria, or diphtheritic roup. 

6. — Congestion of the lungs. 

7. — Pneumonia. 

8. — Conjunctivitis. 
The conditions which cause colds are, in a general way, causes ot 
these diseases. To put it another way, if the poultry keeper allows 
his flock to be exposed to conditions which cause colds he creates 
or increases the risk of introducing into his flock any or all of the 
above named diseases. Some of them are contagious, hence may 
occasionally be introduced into a flock where without contagion 
they would not be likely to appear; but most of them develop either 
directly from cold producing conditions or gradually from neglected 
colds. 

Common Colds. 
Symptoms. — The symptoms of simple catarrhal colds are watery 
or frothy eyes, eyelids gummed together, face under the eyes puffed 
or swollen, sneezing, running at the nose. Not all occur in every 
case. Frequently but one is noticeable. 

At first, and for some time in many mild cases, the general con- 
dition of the fowl seems little affected, the appetite is good, and the 
bird active. 

If the cold continues, the bird becomes sluggish, mopes, loses 
appetite, the plumage is rough. If neglected, the case may develop 
quickly into some of the more serious complaints mentioned 
above. It may become chronic in a mild form. Under favorable 
conditions it may disappear without treatment. 

Causes of Colds. — If we regard a cold as the simplest form of 
"temperature disease," I think we get a better appreciation of the 
causes of colds. A " temperature disease " may be described as the 
result of wrong temperature conditions. Many people look always 
for the causes of a cold in themselves to such matters as cold room.s 
or conveyances, insufficient clothing, exposure to cold winds or 



EFFECTS OF WRONG TEMPERATURES. 43 

rains, and if thej cannot find a connection between their cold and 
such causes, are at a loss to know how thej got it. So among 
poultry keepers, if the fowls catch cold, most look for the cause to 
low temperature conditions, and if none such can be connected 
with a case, many will conclude that it is something else than a 
cold, for the fowls were not exposed to conditions which might give 
them colds. 

Wrong temperature does not necessarily mean low temperature. 
A house may be too warm as well as too cold. Or, the temperature 
in the house or out doors may vary to a degree disturbing to the 
physical condition of the fowls. Or the difference between the tem- 
perature in the house and outside temperature may be so great that 
the fowls, going from the house in the morning, are injured by the 
change. 

Besides the disturbing influence of bad temperature conditions 
on the outer surface of the body, wrong temperature conditions 
may have serious effects on vital functions, and these may be either 
direct, as when a raw damp atmosphere irritates the nasal passages, 
and starts an inflammation there which may rapidly extend ; or 
indirect, as when lack of circulation of air causes the fowls to 
breathe vitiated air for hours when on the roost, and poisons the 
fowls, reducing their vitality, and making them more susceptible to 
outward disturbing influences. These two illustrations do not, of 
course, cover all possible results of the effects of wrong tempera- 
tures internally. They do, I think, show the most common effects, 
and these effects I have found oftenest when the poultry keeper is 
trying to keep his fowls warm. 

I cannot here go into a discussion of the relative merits of 
housing systems. For that, readers who need it to convince them 
of the difficulties of making tight houses work as in theory they 
are intended to work, are referred to files of Farm-Poultry for 
1902 — 5, or to the lesson which will treat of the subject in the series 
for 1906. I will only say here that during the late summer and early 
fall the requests for treatment of fowls or chicks that have colds 
that come to me have been for years almost without exception 
from people who were keeping too many fowls in a house, or 
keeping the house closed too much ; while the correspondence 
about colds later in the fall and winter comes largely from people 



44 THE. COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

whose poultry houses are damp though warmly built, kept tightly 
closed except on warmest days and parts of days, and so the fowls 
much of the time breathe air that is chilly and foul, when the house 
is warmed up quickly by the sun have a rapid change to hot foul 
air, and the temperature conditions, as they affect the fowls, both 
outwardly and inwardly, are often bad curing the greater part of 
every twenty-four hours. 

I have put special emphasis on the causes just discussed because 
they are so generally unsuspected, because often in subjecting his 
fowls to conditions which produce these causes of colds the poultry 
keeper thinks he is doing the best and all that can be done to pre- 
vent colds. Having thus called special attention to a class of 
causes of colds which otherwise the reader might think uncommon, 
and not give enough consideration when looking for the causes of 
colds in his flock, I give here a list of causes of colds, with some 
illustrations which may make the situation plainer in a case under 
consideration : — 

Causes of Colds. 

I. — Exposure to Cold, Dampness, and Cold Winds. 

Exposure in such cases means continued exposure, or exposure 
after cold, dampness, or wind begins to make the fowl uncomfort- 
able. On the same basis we may place inadequate provisions for 
neutralizing the effects of temporary exposure. 

The degree of exposure w^hich fowls can stand without suffering 
varies just as with men. The condition of the fowl is also a 
factor. A fowl may take cold easily at one time under circum- 
stances which at another time would not have such effect. 

Within limits, exposure is beneficial provided suitable conditions 
are made for counteracting any bad effects from exposure. 

Thus fowls of all kinds, even small chickens, are better for a 
little while in the cold outdoor air in winter if, when cold, they 
have a place to go from it where they will soon become warm again 
either by the warmth of the place or by exercise ; but if, when cold, 
they can go only to a place where the heat is insufficient to restore 
bodily heat quickly, and where there is no inducement to exercise, 
they are likely to take cold because of exposure. 

Fowls may run on the snow, or on a thawing day in winter or 
spring paddle about in icy water and be none the worse for it, if 



LXP05URE TO DRAFTS. CROWDING. 45 

they have opportunity to go when they wish to a floor well covered 
with leaves, broken straw, or other warm litter in which their feet 
quickly become dry and warm, when, if they had to wait for their 
feet to become dry and warm on a hard earth or board floor, their 
feet might remain cold so long, or dry so slowly, that meantime 
they would take cold. 

Fowls may run about in cold raw winds and be none the worse 
for it — as long as they seem satisfied and comfortable; but when 
they begin to be distressed by the wind, they are in a condition 
which, if it continues, may quickly develop a cold or something 
worse. 
2. — Exposure to Drafts. 

Exposure to drafts usually causes at first a gumming of the lids 
of one eye, or a slight pufling of one side of the face. In most 
cases such a symptom indicates a strong current of air, possibly a 
very small one, striking the head of the fowl continuously for some 
hours. Into a warm house such a current of air may come through 
a very small opening when the atmosphere outside is much cooler. 
When the temperature inside and out is nearly the same there can 
be little movement of air through small openings, hence no draft 
of any consequence. If only one side of the head is affected, 
investigation is likely to show that the fowl roosts where such a 
draft would be likely to strike the affected side of the head from the 
side. If both sides of the head are affected alike the draft is more 
likely to go under, over, or about the fowl, though under such con- 
ditions only one side may be affected. Exposure to considerable 
drafts or currents of air surrounding the bird is likely to produce 
general symptoms of cold simultaneously with such local symp- 
toms as may develop. 

3- — Crowding in the Houses, and Improper Ventilation. 

The effects of breathing bad air under these conditions were 
considered on page 43, The more conspicuous results of crowding 
and lack of ventilation are seen when fowls, leaving an over- 
crowded and overheated house for the cooler outer air in the morn- 
ing, immediately develop all the pronounced symptoms of bad 
colds, watery eyes, and running nostrils, sneezing, ruflfled plumage, 
inactivity, and lack of appetite. 



46 THE. COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

4. — Closing Houses Too Much at Night in the Fall. 

Whatever maj be said of the advisability of using open houses 
after real winter weather sets in, no good argument can be made 
for closing doors and windows before water would freeze in the 
house in the fall, or keeping them closed under similar conditions 
in the spring. The house should be so constructed that there will 
be a general movement of the air all through it, the roosts being 
placed, not in a dead air recess or box, but at one side of the room, 
where the atmosphere will partake to some degree of the general 
motion of air in the house, but not with the full force of its 
motion. What I mean is more easily illustrated by a water 
example. If you pour water into a pail, the water falling in the 
center of the pail, there is a very rapid motion of the water at 
that point, a much less rapid motion elsewhere. In a stream there 
is a rapid motion of the current out in midstream generally, while 
along the banks the movement of water is much slower unless the 
winding of the river here and there sends the current from the 
center toward one bank or the other. Now the air may blow 
directly into a chicken house and on the hens on the roosts, but if 
the wall back of them is tight enough to prevent any free passage 
of air through it, and the space in which the roosts are is low 
enough and narrow enough, the air entering strikes a cushion of 
air which is displaced by it slowly and without creating currents 
injurious to the fowls. In the ordinary poultry house, four to six 
feet high at the rear wall, with pens twelve to sixteen feet wide and 
ten or twelve feet deep, if the roosts are along the rear wall the 
entire front may be open, and no wind that will blow in is likely to 
hurt the fowls on the roosts. If roosts are at one side of the pen, 
the front wall tight to a point between one and two feet beyond the 
front roost will prevent a movement of air injurious to the fowls, 
though all the rest of the front is open. For two years I have 
used from early April to the latter part of November, a two pen 
house facing nearly south, with a door in the middle of the north 
wall. This door is rarely shut day or night during the period 
mentioned. The roosts extend along the rear wall, and are pro- 
tected by a partition on either side of the door projecting three to 
four feet into the pen. Any northerly wind may blow through with 
full force, but I have not had a single case of cold in the house. 



TRE.ATME.NTS FOR COLDS. 47 

5. — Sudden Changes of Temperature. 

With a poultry house built facing the south, and built as low and 
with rear and end walls and roof as tight as is customary no special 
precautions need be taken against any but extreme or radical 
changes of temperature. In acting on this advice the reader should 
consider that changes of weather conditions to cold or bad after a 
long period of warm, dry, fine weather, may be relatively extreme, 
though not actually as severe as changes which under other cir- 
cumstances might little affect the fowls. Fowls get accustomed to 
changing temperatures — perhaps not as completely as to high or 
low average temperatures, but still it may be noticed that fowls 
somewhat exposed to weather changes are much less unfavorably 
affected by them than those too carefully shielded from inclemen- 
cies of the weather. 

Extreme changes of temperature may, as a rule, be anticipated 
long enough beforehand to enable the poultry keeper to take such 
steps as are needful to counteract their effects. Feeding heavily of 
heating food is one of the best ways of meeting a sudden drop in 
temperature, and if fowls are susceptible to cold they may also be 
shut in their houses before the temperature falls. Then the air 
inside being warm, and the cold air excluded, the temperature in 
the house falls more slowly, and the fowls adjust themselves better 
to the change. 

Treatments for Colds. 

In many mild cases of colds the removal of the cause is all that 
is necessary, especially in warm weather and with vigorous, healthy 
stock. 

With the same general conditions, less rugged stock might 
profitably be given a tonic, condition powder, or stimulant. As 
far as possible, it is advisable to give flock rather than individual 
treatment. 

Seasoning the food highly with red pepper is beneficial generally 
in cases of colds. 

The red pepper pods chopped into small bits and fed either 
separately or in a mash, are also good — better, I think, than the 
ground pepper. 

Onions are good in colds, and the red pepper pods used as sug- 
gested above, and onions in the mash, or raw, are both considered 



48 THE COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

good for the prevention of colds. Such preventives it is most 
desirable to use when conditions productive of colds prevail, as, for 
instance, long periods of changeable weather. Raw onions, unless 
fed in very small quantities, will flavor both the meat and eggs of 
fowls, but I have never noticed any taste after feeding cooked 
onions; nor did I ever have a customer complain of onion flavor 
when I was feeding cooked onions. 

A remedy for colds used by many poultrymen is : — "A table- 
spoonful of clear lard, half a tablespoonful each of ginger, cayenne 
pepper, and mustard ; mix well together and add flour till the whole 
is of the consistency of dough, roll into slugs about the size of the 
little finger." A batch of these slugs may be made up, dried so 
that they will not stick together, then put in a covered can or box, 
or in a bottle. They will keep for several years. They may be 
administered by putting down the fowl's throat, or simply placed 
before the fowl. If its appetite is good it is quite sure to eat 
several pieces as large as large beans. 

Creolin may be given in the drinking water — a teaspoonful to a 
three gallon bucket of water. 

Another good simple remedy is hard soap. Take a piece of 
common hard soap and dissolve in water to the consistencj' of soft 
boap. Give this in the drinking water, a tablespoonful to a gallon 
of water, giving no clear water while this treatment is used. The 
dissolved soap can be kept in a bottle or jug to use as needed. 

Woods recommends this flock treatment for colds : Drop twenty 
drops spirits of camphor on a little sugar, and dissolve the whole 
in a pint of drinking water. 

When a cold becomes serious, stronger medicines are needed, 
and usually it is best to give local treatment to the parts of the head 
showing symptoms. The mouth and nostrils should be cleansed, 
and applications made to reduce any puffing or swelling of the face 
which may appear. Any of the following washes may be used : — 
Weak alum water. 
Carbolized water — 2 per cent solution, that is, i part 

carbolic acid to 50 parts water. 
Sulphate of copper — a teaspoonful to a quart of water. 
Hydrogen dioxide and water, equal parts. 



BRONCHITIS. OR CROUP. 49 

For external application to the face and eyes, any of the above 
may be used, but the following have more continuous effects : 
Pure lard. 

Carbolated vaseline. 
Creolin, i part; vaseline, 50 parts. 
Turpentine, i part ; glycerine, 6 parts. 
For internal treatment in serious colds, Salmon recommends 
this : — " Gentian root, 4 drams ; ginger, 4 drams ; sulphate of iron, 
2 drams; hyposulphate of sodium, i dram; salicylate of sodium, i 
dram. Pulverize and mix. Give three or four grains a dav for a 
medium sized fowl. 

Woods recommends a mixture of ten drops each tincture aconite, 
tincture bryonia, and tincture spongia in an ounce of alcohol. 
Give in the drinking water — ateaspoonful of the mixture to a quart 
of water. 

Bronchitis, or Croup. 

What Woods calls croup appears to be the disease our other 
authorities call bronchitis. Sanborn makes a distinction between 
the acute and chronic forms of bronchitis ; the latter is, I believe, 
substantially the same thing as whooping cough in human beings. 

Symptoms. — A case of bronchitis usually presents with the 
general symptoms of a bad cold a peculiar symptom which almost 
invariably identifies it. This symptom is a rattling or whistling 
sound when breathing. Unnatural breathing like this not accom- 
panied by cold symptoms is sometimes chronic in fowls. Such 
cases usually result from bronchial troubles which leave the wind- 
pipe in bad condition, or, perhaps from an accident — as in swallow- 
ing something too large for the throat. In these cases the fowl 
seems otherwise all right, but the noise it makes in breathing is 
very irritating to most people. In acute bronchitis or croup, we 
find "rattling in the throat," with symptoms of severe colds, and 
in the chronic form there may be the rattling in breathing and 
coughing up of mucus, the birds between the spasms of coughing 
appearing very well. My reasons for supposing that many cases 
exhibiting symptoms that in a general way resemble symptoms of 
bronchitis are cases of whooping cough, are these : A number of 
times correspondents have reported cases supposed to be bronchitis 
which did not seem to respond to any of the treatments for bron- 



50 THL COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

chitis. The fowls had occasional paroxysms of coughing which 
sometimes exhausted them for the time, but most would quickly 
regain vitality and seem all right until the next attack of coughing. 
Then, all at once, it would be noticed that coughing had ceased and 
the bird was permanently well again. Exact notice was rarely 
taken of the period of the disease, but it seemed to have about the 
same duration as whooping cough, and in general to present the 
same features. 

If my surmise is correct, this form of " bronchitis " is not 
serious. The difficulty, however, is to distinguish between it and 
other forms in the early stages, and the best way to do would seem 
to be to assume in the beginning that the disease is or may become 
acute, and treat as for acute bronchitis. Then if the case becomes 
chronic, separate affected birds, and give warm quarters and good 
care, without special medical treatment. 

Causes. — Any of the causes of colds may develop bronchitis. 
The disease is also sometimes developed by the irritation of dust 
and gases or vapors. Sanborn mentions the use of airslaked lime 
in poultry houses as a cause of bronchitis. 

Treatments. — For early stages : — 

I. — One drop tincture of aconite every hour for five hours, then 
one in three hours. Keep the bird in warm moist air; feed hot 
mash at least half bran. (Sanborn). 

2. — Salmon recommends the inhalation of steam or vapor from 
boiling water containing hops, or a small quantity of carbolic acid 
or creolin. Give with the food two grains of black antimony twice 
a day, the food to be soft and cooling — stale bread or a mixture of 
bran and middlings moistened with milk. For drink he suggests a 
little flax seed steeped in hot water, or honey or gum arable added 
to the drinking water. 

3. — Woods prescribes the aconite, bryonia, and spongia mixture 
mentioned on page 49, for mild cases of croup. 

For More Severe Cases. 

4. — For a case which in its early stages looks like a severe case, 
Salmon advises giving ten drops spirits of turpentine in a tea- 
spoonful of castor oil, repeating the dose after five or six hours, but 
not continuing it after signs of purging appear. For very difficult 



ROUP, CONTAGIOUS CATARRH. 51 

respiration he advises giving from three to six drops of either the 
sjrup or the wine of ipecac. 

5. — For cases that do not respond to the treatment given at No. 4, 
Woods gives a one one-thousandth of a grain of arsenite of anti- 
mony night and morning until a stage of marked improvement is 
reached, and for patients in danger of suffocating, recommends 
inhalations of steam from boiling water, and bathing the throat 
with cold water. 

6. — For chronic cases Sanborn recommends " Dumas Anti- 
malarial" pills, made of strychnine, iron, and quinine, to be given 
one pill each night and morning for -weeks. 

Both of the remedies in Nos. 5 and 6 are hard to get ; few drug 
stores keep them. Both treatments are to be continued for quite a 
long time, and necessitate individual handling of each fowl affected 
twice daily. This excludes them from one economic rule for the 
treatment of disease. 

Roup — Contagious Catarrh. 

Symptoms. — Common colds are not contagious, though they 
may be general throughout a flock, because the conditions which 
give one fowl- a cold are likely to give many colds. There is a 
more virulent form of disease with catarrhal symptoms which is 
contagious. In it the symptoms of common colds are generally 
much aggravated, and the discharge from the head has the peculiar 
offensive odor known among poultrymen as " the roup smell." 
One familiar with this odor may often detect the disease through it 
before any other symptom is noted. With the development of the 
disease the discharge from the head becomes thick, sometimes 
obstructing breathing through the nostrils. Then, the fowl breath- 
ing through the mouth, the tongue and mouth become dry, and on 
the tip of the tongue forms the scale which many call " the pip," 
and think a distinct disease. The thick yellow discharge may 
collect in the passages of the head, and especially in the sockets of 
the eyeballs, in such quantities as to force the eyeball out of place 
and permanently destroy the eye, even if the fowl recovers from 
the disease. The discharge dries in crusts on the beak and about 
the nostrils, soils the feathers of the fowl wherever it comes in 
contact with them, particularly on the wing where the head touches 



52 THL COMMON-SLNSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

it as the bird rests at night. The comb and wattles generally 
become a dark angrj looking red. The bird is feverish, and if it 
can see is likely to stand near the water pan drinking frequently 
and polluting the water, and through it spreading the contagion to 
its mates. 

The period of development varies. Woods says that in acute 
cases the disease develops in from two to five days after infection. 
A great many cases are mild, though the roup smell is present in 
their earliest stages, and some take a mild chronic form and run for 
a long time. It is these mild cases that cause most of the trouble 
with roup. The fowls having them, though not seemingly very 
sick themselves, carry the contagion about, and wherever they may 
be outbreaks of roup will appear at frequent intervals. 

Cause. — Authorities are agreed that this form of roup, to which 
it is more and more the practice to restrict the use of the term 
*' roup," is caused by a specific germ, but as to whether the germ is 
peculiar to the disease, they are not agreed. Some think it is; 
others think that the same germ causes diphtheria or diphtheritic 
roup, the difference between the two being a difference in develop- 
ment in different fowls under different circumstances. However 
that may be, the tendency is to treat them as distinct, and to call 
the form of roup with diphtheritic symptoms simply diphtheria. 

The catarrhal roup contagion is spread mostly through food and 
drink. In fact it is so generally spread by fowls eating and drink- 
ing together that practically no other way need be considered. 
Fowls having symptoms of roup must not be allowed to eat and 
drink with well fowls. When separated for this purpose other 
ways (if there are such) of communicating the disease cannot 
operate. 

Treatment. — Treatment of pronounced cases of roup is unprofit- 
able. The risk of retaining the disease in the yards in fowls 
apparently cured is too great, and the time necessary to give to the 
treatment of bad cases is generally worth more than the value of 
the fowls saved. 

The best thing to do when roup is discovered in a flock is to kill 
and burn or bury deep every bird which seems sick, and separate at 
once from the flock every bird showing any symptoms of cold, and 
treat as for bad colds,— the extent of the treatment being deter- 



INFLUENZA. DIPHTHERITIC ROUP. S^ 

mined by the symptoms in each case. Many birds will require 
nothing more than one of the general remedies given for colds. 
Some may need a few individual treatments, washing the mouth 
and throat, and anointing the face and the comb about the nostrils. 
The cure of bad cases of roup depends more on frequent individual 
treatments and on good nursing (including forcing nourishing 
food into the crop if the sick fowl cannot or will not partake of food 
itself). I have cured many very bad cases, but quit treating them 
years ago, because I found that as long as I cured roup I had more 

roup to cure. 

Influenza. 

So far as I have seen, Woods is the only writer who has described 
this disease, others making no distinction between it and roup, 
diphtheria, and severe colds. Woods describes it as "epizootic," 
or " grippe" — " a contagious germ disease often closely associated 
with roup," but in his opinion quite distinct from either roup or 
diphtheria. I judge from his description of symptoms and state- 
ments of causes that he would give this name to many cases of 
disease which some poultrymen have been accustomed to call " dis- 
temper," and consider either a form of roup or a chronic cold from 
which roup might develop. The symptoms he gives appear also to 
be identical with symptoms produced when several causes of colds 
operate simultaneously; as, for instance, when fowls are subjected 
to wrong or changeable temperature and bad hygienic conditions. 
I have often had correspondents report cases with these symptoms 
from overcrowded flocks with the first hot weather of summer, or 
from newly purchased stock shortly after its arrival. Briefly stated, 
the symptoms are of a sudden and severe cold, with high fever, 
generally diarrhea, and extreme debility. In very severe cases 
death may ensue within a few hours after the fowl is observed to be 
sick. Usually the bad cases linger for a day or two, while those 
that recover run for a week or ten days. Treatment the same as 
for bad colds. 

Diphtheria — Diphtheritic Roup. 

Symptoms. — The brief description of the symptoms and course 
of this disease given by Dr. Woods in an article on " Roup and 
Roupy Colds," published in Farm-Poultry, Oct. 15, 1902, is the 
most satisfactory I have seen, and I quote it here entire : — 



54 THL COMMON-SENSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

"It is sometimes difficult to tell just when roup leaves off and 
diphtheria begins, the two are often so intimately associated. 
Diphtheria or diphtheritic roup is a contagious germ disease. It 
may or may not have the ' roup smell.' 

" A fowl in apparent good health becomes suddenly ill, loses 
appetite, and appears dumpish. Eyes and nose may or may not 
show a frothy or glairy discharge in the early stages of the disease. 
Fowl is hot, comb is hot and deep red, and later becomes pale and 
drooping. May be cough with sharp ' pip ' sound, or may be diffi- 
cult breathing and lividness of face and comb. Examination of 
the throat shows much redness and inflammation, with small 
pearly or wash leather colored patches on the back part of the 
throat or about the cleft of the palate. These patches increase 
rapidly in size, and have a tendency to run together. The mem- 
brane may grow rapidly, filling the mouth and throat, and causing 
death from suffocation. The membrane is apparently a part with 
the mucous membrane of the throat, and any attempt to remove it 
will result in bleeding. (If the membrane does come away easily, 
and does not have a bleeding surface, the disease is not diphtheria). 
The fowl shows signs of great weakness from constitutional poison- 
ing. The membrane may extend into the windpipe and cause 
death from suffocation, or it may extend to the mucous membrane 
of the nasal passages and to the eyes, causing swollen head. The 
breath always has a very fetid odor. This is a decidedly differ- 
ent odor from the ' roup smell.' Roup may have any or all of these 
symptoms common to diphtheria, but does not have the following 
sequelae which belong to diphtheria: Paralysis of the heart may 
appear at any stage of diphtheria, and cause death. Cases which 
have apparently recovered may develop paralysis of the throat, 
which prevents swallowing. The fowl may lose the use of the legs 
or wings. The paralysis is not necessarily permanent. One 
attack of diphtheria predisposes to another, and a fowl should not 
be considered well until at least six months have elapsed since the 
last symptoms were observed, with no recurrence of symptoms." 

Treatment.— Treatment of diphtheria is more difficult and less 
often successful than treatment of roup (contagious catarrh). Only 
individual treatment will answer, and the treatment of a few cases 
would take up a considerable part of a man's timje while continued. 



TREATMENTS FOR DIPHTHERIA. 55 

While urgently advising readers not to "doctor" cases of diph- 
theria, but to kill and properly dispose of the bodies, I give the treat- 
ments prescribed by Woods and Salmon, the first being a verbatim 
quotation from the article mentioned above, and the second 
an abstract of the longer statement in Salmon's " Diseases of 
Poultry." 

(Woods) — " Cleanse the mouth and throat frequently with a solu- 
tion of creolin (one teaspoonful in half a glass, four fluid ounces, 
of water). In cases where there is a thick tough membrane the 
swab (a bit of absorbent cotton twisted about the end of a tooth- 
pick) may be moistened with straight creolin and then held for a 
few minutes against the membrane, and moved gently over it. 
Don't drop any straight creolin into the windpipe unless you want 
to kill the patient. For internal medicine give a one one-hundredth 
of a grain tablet biniodide of mercury (or same strength pro- 
toiodide of mercury) four times daily until the membrane begins to 
disappear, and then gradually reduce the dose to one tablet daily. 
Continue the remedy for at least a week after the throat clears up. 
During convalescence the bird will need a tonic. Give five drop 
doses of Fellows' compound syrup of hypophosphites made into a 
pill with bread crumbs, three times daily." 

Dr. Salmon mentions a number of treatments for diphtheria in 
fowls : — 

I, — Apply a two per cent solution of either creolin or pure car- 
bolic acid in water to the diphtheritic spots three times a day, inject- 
ing a little of the solution into the nostrils ,• remove the diphtheritic 
membranes as soon as it can be done without bleeding, and continue 
the application of the remedy. 

2. — Apply tincture of iodine to diseased spots in the mouth, and a 
solution of salicylic acid (i grain in an ounce of water) to the eyes. 

3, — Apply boric acid, 15 grains to an ounce of water, to eyes, 
nostrils, and mouth as often as convenient. 

4. — Remove membranes, apply boric acid solution, then cover 
affected parts with flowers of sulphur. 

5. — Dissolve 35 grains of potassium and 2 grains salicylic acid in 
one ounce of water, and add one ounce of glycerine. Apply to the 
diphtheritic spots two or three times a day, and also give internally 
a teaspoonful to a fowl. 



56 THF, COMMON-5EN5E. POULTRY DOCTOR. 

6. — One grain each cayenne pepper, sulphate of quinine, sulphate 
of iron ; mix and make into pills with a small quantity of sjrup. 
Give the fowl at one dose. 

7. — Mix 45 grains sulphate of iron and i dram finely pulverized 
carbonate of soda with syrup or honey to give proper consistency. 
Divide into fifty pills. 

As these last two prescriptions are especially recommended for 
the chronic or undeveloped form of diphtheria, I presume that the 
dose should be repeated at intervals, but no specific instructions on 
that point are given, perhaps because the poultry keeper must in 
each case use his judgment about continuing treatment, giving it 
until improvement is noticed. 

Having given these treatments for those who will try to doctor 
diphtheria in fowls, I would again urge upon the reader, as the 
better policy, never to try to treat a case of diphtheria, but to kill 
every fowl in an affected flock which shows any symptoms of the 
disease, for fowls apparently cured are likely to have other attacks, 
and the risks of the disease are too great to take chances with it. 

Congestion of the Lungs. 

This disease causes a great many of the sudden deaths and deaths 
after very short sickness which puzzle poultry keepers. It develops 
oftenest in young stock, particularly in chicks reared in brooders. 
Any stock exposed to severe changes of temperature is liable to it, 
and, of course, the more delicate fowls, and fowls out of condition, 
as when molting, are especially liable to take it when exposed to 
sudden changes or rigorous weather. 

Symptoms. — Difficult and rapid breathing, comb dark red or 
bluish, bird appears to be in a semi-comatose condition, bloody 
mucus may discharge from the mouth. A post mortem examina- 
tion of the lungs will show them full of blood and very dark in 
color. 

Causes. — Exposure to cold, chilling. Salmon says it also occurs 
in overfed birds, especially cage birds. The first causes given are 
those poultrymen should look for first when seeking to ascertain 
the cause of a case of sickness supposed to be congestion of the 
lungs. Overfeeding with fowls is more likely to develop other dis- 
orders before congestion of the lungs. 



CONGL5TION OF THL LUNG5, PNEUMONIA. 57 

Treatment. — The course of the disease is so rapid that no treat- 
ment is likely to be successful, and the poultry keeper's attention 
should be directed rather to the prevention of further cases. The 
conditions which develop one or more cases of congestion of the 
lungs in a flock are likely to reduce the vitality of many others in 
the flock. Preventive treatment should look out first for the com- 
fort of the fowls, then see that they have an abundant, varied, rich, 
and mildly stimulating ration. 

Many cases of congestion of the lungs occurring among brooder 
chicks indicates something wrong with the brooding, either in the 
brooders or in the management. Sometimes the trouble is bad in 
the late winter and early spring, disappears almost or altogether in 
warm spring and early summer, and reappears with extreme hot 
w^eather. If one is losing many brooder chicks it is well to have 
some of those that die examined to discover the condition of the 
lungs, and if the fault is with the brooding it must be remedied. 
Otherwise the poultry keeper might as well quit hatching. 

Pneumonia. 

Dr. Salmon is, I think, the only one of the popular writers on 
poultry diseases who has made a distinction between pneumonia 
and congestion of the lungs. The others include both in pneu- 
monia. Pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, Salmon describes 
as an alteration of the lungs one step beyond congestion. Says he : 
" If a bird affected with congestion of the lungs does not die or 
recover within a few hours the disease may develop into pneu- 
monia. In this disease there is not only a distention of the blood 
vessels, as with congestion, but there is thrown out from these 
vessels a liquid which fills the air cells, and, by coagulating, forms 
a semi-solid gelatinous substance that excludes the air and renders 
the lungs useless for respiration." 

Symptoms. — Ordinary observation would note rvo difference 
between outward symptoms of pneumonia and congestion of the 
lungs. 

Causes. — The authorities who make no distinction between con- 
gestion of the lungs and pneumonia, give the causes for pneu- 
monia substantially as they have been given in this book for con- 
gestion of the lungs. Sanborn states that the belief grows that the 



58 THE COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

disease is contagious. Salmon, in stating the causes, makes the 
matter plain. He sajs it is supposed that to produce pneumonia 
there must be with the causes that produce congestion of the lungs 
the agency of a germ, a species of bacteria, harmless when the 
lung is in normal condition, but harmful when conditions which 
cause congestion are present. 

Treatment. — Few fowls are worth the treatment required to 
effect a cure, and a cure is so uncertain that it is rarely worth while 
to attempt to treat pneumonia. In this, as in all hopeless cases, or 
cases unprofitable to treat, the poultry keeper, having made up his 
mind on that point, should promptly put the fowl out of its misery. 

Treatments prescribed are : — 

I. — "Keep the bird in a room of about 70 degrees, with steam 
from boiling water if possible. Give every six hours one grain 
phenacetin, and one grain sulpho-carbolate of zinc, mixed with 
bread crumbs enough to make a pill. Feed on raw egg and milk. 
Do not give quinine or spirits. Tincture aconite in the drinking 
water, or one drop every two hours in the egg and milk, will help 
control the hard breathing. If successful in saving the bird, build 
up its strength with tonics such as nux vomica or quinine." (San- 
born). 

2. — " The bird should be immediately housed and kept »varm. 
Counter irritation must be applied over the region of the lungs by 
wetting the skin under the feathers on the back with tincture of 
iodine. Stimulants should be administered three or four times a 
day — two drops of spirits of camphor and ten drops of brandy 
in a teaspoonful of warm milk. Soft, nutritious diet, especially 
chopped beef, is necessary. Beaten egg and port wine is also use- 
ful. Three or four spots of chlorodyne may be given in a teaspoon- 
ful of linseed tea to relieve the more distressing symptoms ; and 
ultimately, if the case progresses favorably, mineral tonics and cod 
liver oil are favorable in establishing convalescence." (Hill). 

3. — "Place bird in a warm room and cover with a piece of 
blanket, leaving the head uncovered that it may have plenty of 
air. Give linseed tea frequently in small quantities. To make this 
tea: Pour a pint of boiling water on an ounce of flaxseed, and 
keep hot, but not boiling, for two hours. Strain to remove the 
seeds. The liquid may then be used as a drink, or medicines may 



SORL LYL5 — CAUSE AND TRLATMLNT. 59 

be given in it. Dissolve enough nitrate of potash in the drink to 
give the bird about one grain three times a day. If the bird is fail- 
ing and becomes sleepy, with comb turning dark, mix fifteen drops 
of tincture of digitalis with one ounce of water, and give ten drops 
of the mixture every two hours. To give medicine use a medicine 
dropper, and be careful to avoid getting it into the air passages. 
When the bird begins to improve, give a grain of quinine, or ten 
drops of cod liver oil twice a day." (Salmon). 

Conjunctivitis — Sore Eyes. 

After colds or mild cases of roup, (and sometimes from other 
causes), the eyes of fowls may be diseased. When the trouble 
follows colds or roup it is usually regarded as a symptom of the 
original trouble, which continues though the fowl is otherwise 
improved, and is often allowed to go on for some time without the 
special treatment it requires. When it develops from other causes 
it is often supposed to be roup, and treatment for that is given. 
Many cases recover without treatment, and many cases of eye 
trouble due to other causes, given a roup treatment recover, and 
the poultry keeper thinks he has cured a case of roup, and finding 
some after effects, especially in breeding, not as serious as is usual 
with true roup, is apt to be more careless about roup than is advis- 
able. It is, as a rule, only when roup remedies fail that the stranger 
to this disease begins to make inquiries about it. The authorities 
on diseases are in part to blame for this, for of them all Woods has 
been the only one to give it appropriate notice. 

Symptoms. — Gumming of eyelids, and mucus discharge from the 
eyes. Where there is a discharge of pus from the eyes in flam ma- 
ation of the cornea may develop. This is called keratitis. Woods 
says that if noticed early a small opaque white spot may be seen 
over the pupil. Whether the lids are gummed or not, the fowl 
keeps its eyes closed, the light being painful. Severe inflammation 
and ulceration may destroy the sight. 

Causes. — Causes of colds, roup, diphtheria, irritating dust in 
the eyes, injuries to eyes. 

Treatment. (Woods). — For simple conjunctivitis, give ten or 
fifteen drops tincture of euphrasia in a pint of drinking water. 
Bathe the eyes with mild solutions as used for colds, or anoint with 



60 THE COMMON-5E.NSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

two per cent creoHn mixture with lard or vaseline. For purulent 
cases give ten to fifteen drops tincture of Pulsatilla in the drinking 
water, and both wash and anoint the eyes w^ith the solutions and 
ointment mentioned. 

For keratitis : — Bathe eyes with cool water and a little hydrogen 
dioxide ; then anoint the inner part of the lids with an ointment 
made of ten grains finely powdered iodoform in an ounce of vase- 
line. Cleanse the nostrils, and dust the nose and cleft of palate 
with the following powder : Equal parts of pulverized camphor, 
boracic acid, and subnitrate of bismuth well mixed. 



CHAPTER VII 



Diseases Due to Improper Foods and Feeding. 



THE diseases discussed in this chapter probably cause more 
losses and more unproductiveness among adult fowls than 
all other classes of diseases. Some of the most common of them 
have no conspicuous symptoms, and the condition of the fowl may 
not even be suspected by an unsuspicious or ordinarily observant 
poultryman until revealed by post mortem examination of fowls to 
find a cause for death. 

Among young chickens losses due to improper temperature for 
broo.der chicks, and to exposure for chicks being reared by natural 
methods, may be more numerous, but losses from bad feeding are 
often heavy in the first few months, and in a great many instances 
the combination of wrong temperature and bad feeding causes 
heavy losses when neither cause alone is bad enough to have very 
serious effects. 

The bad effects of an improper food, or of good food fed under 
improper conditions, may be instantaneous and marked, or they 
may develop so slowly and obscurely that no outward symptom 
warns the feeder that he is going wrong. Old poultrymen are fre- 
quently found who have fed wrong for years, had the same trouble 
come from it every year, and yet could not be convinced that the 
fault was in their method of feeding, because they could not see the 
connection of cause and result. 

Digestive disorders may be due to other things than the food, or 
the way of feeding. Worms, by obstructing the digestive processes, 
may develop diseased conditions of one or more of the organs of 



62 THL COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

digestion. Contagious germ diseases attacking the intestines have 
somewhat the same effect. Hence if the food and feeding condi- 
tions are bejond criticism, and still something has plainly gone 
wrong somewhere in the digestive system of the fowl, (and espe- 
cially if several or many fowls are affected), the poultry keeper 
should look for symptoms of worms and contagious germ diseases. 

In a general way we may divide diseases due to improper foods 
and feeding into two classes : — 

I. — Diseases produced by taking into the system things which 
are themselves injurious. 

2. — Diseases produced by the inability of the system to utilize 
proper food materials either because improperly served, or 
because the organs are weak. 

In a general way these divisions correspond to the division pre- 
viously indicated according to prominence of symptoms, injurious 
articles producing plain symptoms, usually very quickly, while dis- 
eases of the other kind develop slowly, and rarely present any 
noticeable symptoms. In a general way it may also be said that 
fowls at liberty are more likely to contract the more acute digestive 
troubles, while the chronic forms are more commonly found among 
fowls kept in confinement. These general differences are indicated 
that the reader may know what kinds of digestive disorders his 
method of poultry keeping makes it most necessary to guard against. 
Fowls at liberty, particularly in towns where they have access to all 
sorts of refuse, are especially subject to diseases of the crop, stom- 
ach, and intestines, resulting from eating filthy, putrid, poisonous, 
or irritant substances. Fowls at liberty on farms, as most farm 
fowls are, may occasionally get such substances, but the farmer is 
more likely to take proper care of them than is the city resident who 
has no animals of his own to be injured, and is indifferent as to 
what may happen to stock belonging to his neighbor. 

Fowls in confinement are most subject to indigestion and liver 
troubles. 

Diseases of the Crop. 

Symptoms and Causes. — The crop may be regarded as the first 
stomach of the fowl. Into it the food passes first, and in it is 
retained for a time while being softened and made fit for further 
digestive processes. Any serious interference with the functions of 



CAUSE, OF " CROP BOUND." 63 

the crop is likely to cause the retention of food in it, and to produce 
the condition which poultrjmen call " crop bound." This crop 
bound condition may be due to any one of several causes : 

1. — The crop may contain indigestible material — most frequently 
long hay — which the fowl can neither pass through to 
remainder of the digestive tract, nor expel through the 
mouth. 
2. — The crop may be so crowded with digestible material that its 
walls are incapable of the action necessary to force the food 
onward. 
3. — The passage from the crop may be obstructed. 
4. — Enlarged, pendulous, or slack crop. 

5. — Inflammation of the walls of the crop may occur either from 
irritating substances taken into it, or from food retained 
too long in it. This latter condition is often a result of 
disease further down the digestive tract, an obstruction in 
or failure to act of any part of the system necessarily react- 
ing on the other parts. 

Impaction of the Crop. 
It is sometimes a question in my mind whether anything but 
metal should be called indigestible for a fowl with robust digestive 
power. We say that the dry hay the fowl may take into the crop 
causes impaction, but the fact is that it is only in occasional 
instances that it does cause impaction. Far oftener the fowl eats 
dry hay or corn fodder till its crop is bulging, and is never seen to 
be at all the worse for it. I have seen this so often, that though an 
occasional case of impacted crop might properly be attributed 
directly to the overloading of the crop, the occurrence of a number 
of such cases in a flock at about the same time, would suggest that 
the real cause was indigestion, or weak digestion. I have repeat- 
edly given fowls which all their lives had been handled to make 
and keep digestive organs in first class condition all other condi- 
tions for developing cases of impacted crops, but have never been 
able to get a case that way. 

Impacted crop occurs oftenest when hens get out on the ground 
in the spring, and eat the dead grass to the distention of the crop, 
but may occur at any time as indicated in the categorical list of 
causes. Some people tell me that their fowls will become crop 



64 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

bound at any time on any dry litter they may use in the scratching 
floors. When this happens the trouble is unquestionably due to 
indigestion, or to an abnormal appetite produced by indigestion or 
malnutrition. Where a crop bound condition develops it should be 
treated in the individual case, and if it is to any extent epidemic 
general measures should be taken to correct errors in feeding, and 
to improve digestion. 

Treatment. — " Cause the bird to swallow a tablespoon ful of 
castor oil ; then knead carefully the hard mass. If successful in 
softening it, hold the hen head downward and try to push the sub- 
stance along and out of the mouth. If swelled grain is the cause of 
the trouble, you will probably be successful ; but if matted hay or 
cornstalk makes up the mass, you will have to open the crop. 

" If someone can hold the bird for you it will make the operation 
easier. Pluck out a few feathers and then cut through the skin 
over the crop a line about one inch long. This cut should be in the 
medium line of the body. Then make an incision three-fourths of 
an inch long through the crop. The distention of the crop will 
cause the opening to gape, and the mass will be in plain sight. 
With toothpicks, blunt pointed scissors, tweezers, or similar tools, 
take out the contents of the crop. This done, run the finger into 
the crop and make sure that there is nothing remaining to obstruct 
the outlet to the organ. When sure all is right, take three or four 
stitches in the opening in the crop, making each stitch by itself, 
and tying a knot that will not slip. Then do the same thing to the 
cut in the skin. For stitches use white silk (or if nothing better 
can be obtained) common cotton thread, number sixty. Keep the 
bird by itself for a week, feeding soft food." — (Farm-Poultry 
Doctor J. 

While the above treatment may be followed as given, these few 
additional suggestions by Salmon (Diseases of Poultry) may profit- 
ably be applied. Instead of castor oil sweet oil may be used, 
administering a small quantity at first and other small quantities as 
they seem to be needed to assist the process of softening the con- 
tents of the crop by kneading. 

In making the cut to open the crop make it rather high on the 
crop, that the pressure of food on it while healing may be as light 
as possible. 



LNLARGLD, OR PLNDULOUS CROP. 65 

After removing the contents of the crop, wash the wound with a 
solution of carbolic acid, five drops to one ounce of water. 

After the operation give no food, and only a little water to which 
a grain or two of salicjlic acid has been added, for twenty-four 
hours. Then give milk only for two or three days, after which 
gradually change to mush and more solid food. 

The operation is not a difficult one, and is usually successful if 
the operator is careful, and at all deft with his fingers and in the 
manipulation of the knife, but if bunglingly and carelessly per- 
formed, or if the fowl is neglected or fed hard food after the opera- 
tion the cuts may not heal properly. 

Enlarged Crop. 

Symptoms. — The crop sometimes becomes very much enlarged 
and prominent, but hanging loosely, not bulging and hard, as in 
impaction of the crop. This form of permanent enlargement and 
displacement is called enlarged crop, slack crop, or pendulous crop. 
It may exist with little inconvenience and detriment to the fowl. 

Causes. — Sanborn says that this condition of the crop results 
from irregular feeding; that the fowls having had no food, or an 
insufficient supply for a day or two, overload the crop at the first 
opportunity. This may be the cause in a great many cases, yet it 
can hardly be the sole cause, for cases of slack crop are not infre- 
quently found in fowls that have been well and regularly fed. 
Hence it seems to me that Sanborn's statement requires some 
explanation and addition to make it cover the causes. 

If a fowl is fed heavily, and from any cause (as indigestion) the 
crop remains full and distended too long, though this condition 
may in time be relieved in the natural way without interference of 
the keeper, the effect on the crop is the same as if the overloading 
had occurred because of irregular feeding. If this condition is 
repeated several times the walls of the crop become in some degree 
permanently distended, and if the fowls are fed heavily without 
much exercise the tendency is to steadily exaggerate this condition. 

Again, simply as a result of heavy feeding without sufficient 
intervals between meals, and without sufficient exercise some fowls 
develop at the same time a ** baggy " crop and a " baggy " abdomen. 



66 THL COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Treatment. — Onlj in case of a very valuable bird is treatment 
worth while. Sanborn advises operating as for impaction, making 
cuts three times as long, clean out the crop, then cut out of the 
most enlarged part of the crop a piece of skin from one to two 
inches wide and about two inches long, shaped like a diamond or a 
pair of ( ). Sew edges together with silk, and give after treatment 
as in crop bound cases. 

Inflammation or Catarrh of the Crop. 

This is a disease which rarely develops independently, for the 
causes which produce it will almost invariably develop diseased 
■conditions in other parts of the digestive tract at the same time. 
It occurs quite regularly with gastritis. 

Symptoms. — The crop is distended with food, liquid or gas ; is 
not hard, but fluctuating to the touch. There is belching of gas, 
efforts to vomit, and the crop contents may have an offensive smell. 
The fowl is alternately restless and dull, the breathing spasmodic. 
It loses appetite and strength. 

Causes. — Eating indigestible or irritant substances. This covers 
<]uite a long list from foods containing indigestible particles, or 
foods so damaged that a slow irritation is set up, to foreign and 
poisonous substances which quickly produce acute inflammation. 
The irritating effects of foods are more marked in young chickens 
than in adult fowls, and generally appear much more readily in 
fowls that take little exercise than in those that are active and 
vigorous. When highly irritating or poisonous substances are 
taken into the system the difference in results is not marked, 
though a vigorous healthy fowl does seem better able to overcome 
their effects. The foods and substances specially mentioned as 
causing inflammation of the crop are : Decomposed meats and 
putrid foods of any kind, unslaked lime, paint skins, rat poison, 
excessive use of condiments and spices, milled by-products con- 
taining too large proportions of hulls or other indigestible fibrous 
particles. Salmon notes that it may result from the presence of 
worms in the crop, and that it occurs as a complication with thrush, 
diphtheria, and cholera. As has been stated, it also occurs fre- 
quently with gastritis. 



CATARRH OF THL CROP — TRLATMLNT5. 67 

Treatment. — If the cause of inflammation is known, it will 
help in determining the course of treatment. 

'^If unslaked lime has been taken, give for drink vinegar water. 

" If phosphorus has been taken, given magnesia. 

" If lead* (paint) has been eaten, give six drops diluted sulphuric 
acid in three tablespoonfuls warm water. 

"In all these cases try to empty the crop by holding the head 
downward and working the contents of the crop out through the 
mouth. If crop is nearly empty give warm water to furnish some- 
thing to work upon. After the crop is empty give for drink flax- 
seed tea, and feed lightly for several days." (" Farm-Poultry 
Doctor "). 

The general treatment recommended by Salmon, ("Diseases of 
Poultry"), is — after emptying crop : " Give two grains subnitrate 
of bismuth and one-half grain bicarbonate of soda in a teaspoonful 
of water. Keep the bird without food for eighteen or twenty hours, 
then feed sparingly of soft, easily digested food. If one-half grain 
of quinine is given morning and night for two or three days 
recovery is hastened." 

Salmon also mentions salicylic acid as prescribed by some 
authorities to be given after the crop is empty. Dissolve one 
grain in one ounce of water, and give two or three teaspoonfuls as 
a dose. 

" Mucilaginous or albuminous fluids, such as barley water, milk, 
isinglass, or a thin solution of gum should be freely administered 
alter the first evacuation of the crop. Should phosphorus have 
been taken, magnesia should be given, followed by turpentine 
mixed in cream. Oil being a solvent of phosphorus, must on no 
account be administered. 

" Crude or unslaked lime is an irritant poison to fowls, pro- 
ducing inflammation of the throat, gullet, crop, gizzard, and intes- 
tines. Oil should at once be administered, followed by full and 
frequent doses of mucilaginous or albuminous fluids." (" Diseases 
of Poultry." Hill). 



*Such earth paints as Venetian red and the various mineral browns are not injurious 
to fowls. Venetian red is said to have some medicinal value. 



68 THL COMMON-SEN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Qastritis — Inflammation of the Stomach. 

In fowls the stomach proper is a small organ, appearing more 
like an enlargement of the aesophagus just before it reaches the 
gizzard, than like a separate organ. Ordinarily it is difficult or 
impossible to make a distinction by outward symptoms between 
inflammation of the crop and inflammation of both crop and 
stomach. In the comparatively rare cases in which there appears 
to be gastritis or inflammation of the stomach alone, the disease is 
not likely to be identified with any degree of certainty except as a 
result of discovery of a cause for it. 

Symptoms. — In general the same as for inflammation of the 
crop, (which see). In simple gastritis, the stomach alone being 
affected, the distention of the crop might not be especially notice- 
able, though there were some gas passing through it. Constipation 
is a frequent symptom in gastritis. 

Causes. — In general the same as for inflammation of the crop, 
(which see). 

Treatment. — " Remove cause if possible to discover it. Give 
rice water for drink, soft mash made with the water in which 
clover hay has been cooked. Arsenite of copper, one-fourth grain 
to each quart of the rice water (drink) will do for medicinal treat- 
ment." (" Farm-Poultry Doctor"). 

" If the disease is identified in its early stages, seek for its cause 
and endeavor to overcome it by removing the cause. Change the 
ration and give more easily digested food with some meat. Feed 
regularly, often, and a small quantity at a time. Give some cooked 
food with barley water or milk for drink, or put twenty grains of 
bicarbonate of soda to a quart of drinking water. In severe cases 
give two grains of subnitrate of bismuth three times a day in a 
teaspoonful of water. Counteract constipation with epsom salts 
(twenty grains) or castor oil (one teaspoonful) once a day as long 
as may be necessary." ("Diseases of Poultry." Salmon). 

" Nourishment in the shape of soft, cooked, and mucilaginous 
food. Medicinally, a little salad oil, to overcome constipation, also 
injection of some per rectum. A grain each of opium and calomel 
occasionally. For drinking purposes, lime water and milk, and 
barley water." (" Diseases of Poultry." Hill). 



DI5LA5L5 OF THL LIVLR. 69 

The reader should note that in two of these treatments great 
stress is put on the finding and removal of the cause. With fowls 
at liberty, especially in towns, it is often hard to find the cause, and 
unless one can find some cause for gastritis and inflammation of 
the crop at home, or in the house, if the fowls have the run of his 
own premises, he should confine them where he is sure that they 
can get nothing but what he wants them to have, and see to it that 
he gives them nothing that would produce or aggravate the diseased 
conditions he is trying to correct. From the correspondence and 
conversations I have had with poultrymen whose fowls had acute 
trouble, which from their descriptions seemed to be inflammation 
of either crop or stomach, or both, I find that many attempt to 
correct the trouble by the medicinal treatment without giving due 
attention to diet, and without either removing the cause or isolating 
the fowls from any possible cause. 

It should be noted, also, that one treatment suggests a complete 
change of food. The object of this is to secure the removal of any 
possible cause of trouble in the food. 

Diseases of the Liver. 

The annual losses of poultry due to liver trouble in various forms 
are numerous. These diseases seem to occur chiefly among adult 
fowls, and to be most prevalent in the latter part of the winter and 
through the spring. The reasons for their frequency then are 
easily found. The common forms of liver trouble result from 
improper feeding and lack of exercise. These causes operate most 
extensively during the winter, and they usually operate slowly, 
and the symptoms of liver troubles are generally obscure and not 
recognized until a post mortem of fowls dying without special out- 
ward symptoms shows a diseased condition of the liver. Hence 
liver trouble may become general and reach advanced stages in a 
flock before their presence is suspected. Meantime, the conditions 
which cause them may be continued, the owner of a flock not infre- 
quently supposing that the absence of sickness in it contradicts the 
teachings of those who advise methods designed to preserve health, 
while as a matter of fact many of his fowls are in a quite advanced 
stage of some liver complaint. 



70 THE COMMON-5LNSE. POULTRY DOCTOR. 

The more common forms of liver complaints are not contagious, 
but as all the fowls in a flock or in a large stock are equally subject 
to the conditions producing the disease, the keeper, not unnaturally, 
may at first attribute deaths from liver trouble to some mysterious 
and rapidly fatal epidemic. 

While the developments of liver trouble resulting from improper 
feeding and lack of exercise are not contagious, even though they 
may appear as an epidemic, some of these same forms of liver 
trouble occur also in contagious diseases affecting other organs 
Salmon mentions cholera, tuberculosis, aspergillosis, and the black- 
head of turkeys as the contagious diseases most frequently produc- 
ing liver troubles as complications. The liver, he says, is particu- 
larly subject to the attacks of the parasites which cause these and 
some other diseases. In what degree an absolutely healthy liver 
may be less vulnerable to attacks of these parasites, does not 
appear. Perhaps it could not be demonstrated, but on general 
principles and from the fact that the measures recommended to 
prevent these diseases are to a considerable extent the ordinary 
rules for the preservation of health, I think we may say that while 
correct feeding and sanitary conditions and good health do not 
furnish immunity from any contagious disease, they do in general 
greatly reduce both the numbers affected and the seriousness of the 

attacks. 

Congestion of the Liver. 

Symptoms. — There are no special external symptoms. Sanborn 
mentions as early symptoms : Rovigh plumage ; watery diarrhea, 
first brownish, then yellow; lack of appetite and indisposition to 
move. The comb may be purplish at first, becoming dark, and then 
quite black. Hill says that there is sometimes a slight enlargement 
and heat at the bottom of the breast bone. 

Causes. — There have been variously stated by different author- 
ities, no one furnishing a complete list. 

Salmon mentions as causes : — Lack of exercise and overfeeding; 
tainted or moldy food ; or poisonous substances ; effects of con- 
tagious diseases ; obstruction of circulation of the blood by disease 
of the heart and lungs. 

Sanborn, after mentioning the overfeeding of fat producing foods 
and excessive use of spices and stimulants as general causes of 



TRLATMENT5 FOR CONGESTION OF THE LIVER. 71 

liver troubles, says that congestion of the liver may be caused by 
any disease of crop, gizzard, or bowels, that obstructs the circula- 
tion of the blood. Disease of the egg passage he mentions as fre- 
quently accompanied by congestion of the liver. Feeding '^ egg 
foods " to hens in close confinement has a tendency to produce this 
condition, as also have the feeding of too large proportion of corn, 
or corn meal or potatoes. 

Hill says that the disease is especially liable to occur among fowls 
confined in a hot locality or houses and fed stimulating food. 

Vale, who for many years has made a specialty of post mortem 
examinations for English poultrymen, gives as causes, — a chill, a 
close unsanitary house, unsuitable food, too free use of condiments, 
and invasion by disease germs. The last he considers the most 
common cause of congestion of the liver, a conclusion in which the 
other authorities do not seem to coincide, and which does not 
apparently hold good for cases as currently' reported to me by corre- 
spondents. By far the larger proportion of cases of liver trouble 
coming to my notice are accounted for by bad feeding conditions. 

A post mortem examination of a fowl affected with congestion of 
the liver shows that organ enlarged, full of blood, tender and easily 
torn. 

Treatments. — In a disease like this in which there are no pro- 
nounced external symptoms to positively identify it, treatment 
must generally be tentative. It would probably be given intelli- 
gently only when one or more fowls having died of liver trouble, 
examination of the bodies showed what was wrong — and when 
other fowls of the flock showed similar symptoms of indisposition 
the natural inference would be that the cause was the same, and 
treatment would be given for congestion of the liver. Also in a 
case where the general symptoms indicated occurred and some of 
the causes of liver trouble were known to be present, it would be a 
good guess that the trouble was with the liver, and treatment for 
congestion of the liver would be the most promising line of treat- 
ment to follow. A number of treatments are recommended : 

" A teaspoonful of castor oil, or one-half teaspoonful sulphate of 
magnesia, dissolved in water, given once a day, combined with a 
diet of cut clover in winter, or cooping out on grass in summer^ 
will be helpful." (Sanborn). 



72 THL COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

" Give sulphate of magnesium, or sulphate of sodium in a purga- 
tive dose (20 grains to a dram), and follow with sulphate of mag- 
nesium 10 grains, bicarbonate of sodium 2 grains, repeated daily 
for a Aveek." (Salmon). 

" Ten grains each of sulphate of magnesia and bicarbonate of 
soda daily until four or five doses have been given ; afterwards a 
little powdered gentian should be mixed with the food, and a little 
introhydrochloric acid mixed in the drinking water." (Hill). 

General Treatment for Flocks Having Numerous Cases of 
Congestion OF the Liver. — In this country by far the greater 
part of the liver troubles among fowls seem to have their beginning 
in warm winter weather. All through our northern states fowls 
have to be confined to their houses much of the winter. When the 
snow is deep the only opportunity they have to get out is when the 
keeper shovels off a little space for them near the house. Even this 
little is often neglected, and it is quite the common thing for fowls 
not to get out of their houses for four, five, or even six months at a 
time. Not only are they closely confined, but the poultryman 
•endeavoring to make the most of his equipment usually overcrowds 
them. Added to this is another error : The winter ration, adapted 
to cold winter weather, is too often given just the same through all 
kinds of changes, when there are many periods of from a day or 
two to as many weeks, when the ration should be less heating and 
stimulating. 

If due attention is given to adapting the diet to the temperature, 
there need be little trouble from the other unfavorable conditions ; 
but if all three unfavorable conditions operate at the same time a 
iew cases of liver trouble will be likely to appear at any time, and 
are almost certain to develop toward the end of the winter. Just as 
soon as it is suspected that there is liver trouble in the flock one or 
more indisposed birds should be killed and examined If examina- 
tion confirms the suspicion prompt measures should be taken to 
counteract bad tendencies. These should look first to good diet. 
Make the mash, if mash is used, light and bulky; feed green and 
vegetable foods liberally; compel exercise in scratching for food. 
Then get the fowls out a little every day, and if sanitary conditions 
in the house are at all objectionable correct them. 



INFLAMMATION OF THL LIVER. 73 

When the conditions to which a flock has been subjected are such 
that a number of bad cases of liver trouble develop, it cannot 
be expected that corrective measures v^^ill arrest development and 
restore to health in every case. On the contrary, a few cases may 
develop in spite of remedial measures, and the fowls exposed to the 
disease are likely to give a much larger proportion of cases of sick- 
ness of various kinds afterwards than fowls that as a flock had 
always been healthy. This being the case, it is generally good 
policy to dispose of a flock that has been through such an experi- 
ence as this as soon as it can be done to advantage, and replace 
with always healthy stock. 

Inflammation of the Liver. 

Inflammation of the liver is an advanced stage of congestion of 
the liver. 

Symptoms. — There are none that are regularly associated with 
this disease and peculiar to it. Vale says it is impossible for the 
most scientific observer to diagnose either inflammation or conges- 
tion of the liver with positive certainty. The symptoms are much 
the same, and outwardly are the common general symptoms of dis- 
ease. Hill says there is sometimes enlargement of the abdomen 
and tenderness on external pressure, sometimes a jaundiced or 
yellow hue of the skin, and, not infrequently, lameness in the right 
leg. 

Causes. — Same as in congestion of the liver. 

Treatment. — Rarely successful. The disease is sometimes 
rapidly fatal, again assumes a chronic form, and the fowl quickly 
wastes away. Only in case of a valuable specimen is it worth while 
to attempt treatment. Even in such cases, if the fowl does not 
promptly respond to treatment, it is as well to discontinue it and 
put the bird out of misery. 

Some of the medical treatments recommended are : — 

" Half a grain each of calomel and opium, repeated in six hours, 
and followed by ten grain doses of tartrate of potash morning and 
night." Hill. ' 

** About twenty grains of sal ammoniac in a wineglassful of 
rather warm water twice a day." Vale. 

" Begin with one-half to one grain calomel, followed with twenty 



74 THE. COMMON-SLNSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

grains of epsom salts and two grains bicarbonate of soda after 
twelve hours. Napthol or benzonapthol may be given twice a day 
in one grain doses to disinfect the intestinal canal." Salmon. 

" A teaspoonful of sulphate of magnesia dissolved in water at 
night, and the next morning one-half teaspoonful of castor oil. 
Tincture nux vomica, one-fourth teaspoonful to a pint of water, to 
be kept constantly within reach for drink." Sanborn. 

Diet as recommended under " General Treatment, " on page 72. 

How TO Distinguish Practically Between Liver Troubles. 

The practical question which comes up in the mind of the reader 
in connection with these two diseases and becomes more insistent 
as he learns of the other liver troubles which are, like them, obscure 
in their symptoms, and not to be identified with certainty during 
the life of the fowl is : — How am I to know when to apply one treat- 
ment, and w'hen another advised as more appropriate to another 
form of disease ? 

The answ^er to the question is that medical treatment for such dis- 
eases must be mostly by guess. As between the two forms of dis- 
ease already considered, the poultry keeper would have to be guided, 
if he concluded to give medicines in the treatment of those he 
attempted to doctor, by what he discovered in examination of such 
birds as died or might be killed for examination, and somewhat by 
the length of the sickness of a fowl. It does not appear from any 
of the authorities at hand that a post mortem of a fowl having 
inflammation of the liver shows symptoms plainly different from 
those described for congestion. There is no mention of an appear- 
ance of the organ peculiar to this stage of the disease. Apparently 
the only way to differentiate between them is, when liver diseases 
develop in a flock, and that fact has been established, to treat fowls 
which show signs of ailing for congestion first, and then if no 
improvement is made rnd the disease seems to pass into a chronic 
form, to treat for inflammation. This suggestion is for those who 
insist on treatment ; the more practical Avay is to give the whole 
flock the general treatment recommended on page 72, and kill all 
ailing fow-ls that do not soon improve with such treatment. 

The following developments of liver trouble are recognizable only 
after post mortem examination, and can be given specific treatment 



HYPERTROPHY AND ATROPHY OF THL LIVER. 75 

only on the assumption that if fowls that die or are killed uniformly 
show the same condition other fowls becoming sick should be given 
the treatment appropriate to that form of liver trouble. 

Enlargement or Hypertrophy of the Liver. 

This is a condition of overdevelopment or abnormal growth of 
the liver. It is very common in old fowls, and may develop in any 
fowls well fed and given little opportunity to exercise. It does not 
appear to be essentially different from the condition of the liver 
produced when, principally in some foreign countries, fowls are 
fed to produce excessive development of the liver, the liver so 
enlarged being esteemed a great delicacy. Naturally those who 
grow these livers contend that there is quite a difference in the con- 
dition of the liver artificially enlarged by design, and that which 
has attained unnatural proportions without any intent on the part 
of anj^one to produce such condition. However that may be, the 
enlarged liver considered as an organ with functions to perform in 
the assimilation of food is an abnormal organ, not in condition to 
perform its functions normally, and so diseased, according to the 
definition of disease mentioned at the beginning of Chapter 11. ; 
and further usefulness of the fowl depends on a restoration of 
normal conditions. 

Symptoms. — There are no special external symptoms. Sanborn 
says fowls in this condition sit on the ground most of the time, and 
refuse to go to roost — symptoms, however, which occur very often 
in other cases. 

Treatment. — General correction of habits, with diet as in other 
liver troubles. Sanborn suggests giving as drink a half teaspoon- 
ful powdered muriate of ammonia to each quart of water. 

Atrophy or Wasting of the Liver. 

This disease, and that next described, are somewhat alike in 
symptoms. Ordinarily no practical purpose would be served by 
making the distinction between them. They may be regarded by 
the poultryman as different developments from the same general 
causes, which he cannot identify during the life of the fowl, and 
which it is to his advantage to identify after death, only as they 



76 THL COMMON.5EN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

may furnish evidence of long continued mismanagement, and lead 
him to adopt better methods of feeding and caring for his fowls. 

Symptoms. — There are no special external symptoms. An 
examination of the fowl after death shows the liver shrunken and 
somewhat granular, and sometimes of a jellowish cast. With the 
decay of the liver tissue Salmon tells us there is sometimes a 
partial development of new tissue, but not to a degree that restores 
the organ to its functions. 

Causes. — In the statement of causes we find some authorities 
differ, though as all treatments of the topic are very brief, such 
differences are readily accounted for without assuming these author- 
ities to be at variance. Each probably mentions the cause which 
most impressed him. Salmon thinks it a common development 
from chronic inflammation of the liver, but mentions as causes 
given by others, compression, due to an excess of abdominal fat, 
and infection. Sanborn and Hill give most prominence to lack of 
nutrition, both stating that they have observed the disease in fowls 
that were given an insufficient supply of food, or a ration lacking 
in some requisite. 

Treatment. — The general treatment for liver troubles. San- 
born advises with this the generous feeding of green cut bone and 
^' Fowler's solution of arsenic," a teaspoonful in each quart of 
drinking water, the water to be fresh daily. Salmon suggests the 
same treatment as for inflammation of the liver. 

Fatty Degeneration of the Liver. 

Salmon, alone, of the authorities I have used makes special 
mention of this disease. From my own correspondence I judge it 
to be quite as common as the foregoing. Inquiries frequently 
describe the symptoms of it so plainly that there is no mistaking it. 

Symptoms. — No special external symptoms. A post mortem 
shows the liver shrunken, hard, with yellowish or grayish streaks 
or spots. Salmon says a microscopic examination often shows the 
liver tissue partially destroyed and replaced by fat. The condition 
of the liver in this disease is sometimes so like the condition in 
tuberculosis as to render positive identification difficult. 

Causes. — The general causes of liver troubles. 

Treatment. — The general treatment given on page 72. 



INTESTINAL TROUBLES. 77 

Jaundice, Biliary Repletion. 

This is another disease discussed only by Salmon, who quotes 
from Megnin concerning it. A number of cases have been 
described to me where it appeared in connection with other forms 
of liver trouble. 

Symptoms. — None externally, except that sometimes the comb 
and wattles are yellowish, — a symptom which may occur in other 
forms of liver trouble. A post mortem examination shows the bile 
so abundant that it abnormally distends the gall sac, and may pene- 
trate the adjoining organs, discoloring them for some distance, and 
causing poisoning and death. 

Causes. — Chronic, mild congestion of the liver, or continuous 
feeding of rations containing too great an excess of starch or fat. 

Treatment. — Change to a diet, including a great variety. 
Megnin recommends a purgative dose of aloes, 1-2 to i grain. 

Diseases of the Intestines. 

While improper foods and feeding are the most common causes 
of intestinal disorders, there are other causes which may produce 
various kinds of intestinal troubles either in the same forms or in 
forms so like as not to be clearly differentiated by the lay poultry 
doctor. In this chapter we will take up only the developments of 
intestinal derangement in which improper foods and feeding are 
the sole or principal causes, leaving the contagious intestinal dis- 
eases to be treated in the chapters devoted to contagious diseases, 
and internal parasites. 

In discussing this class of diseases it is sometimes a puzzle to 
make a comparison of the views of different authorities, for there 
is probably no other class of diseases in regard to which there are 
such differences of opinion leading to divisions of the subject 
which make accurate comparisons impossible. The divisions of 
the subject which I have made are doubtless open to criticism from 
a professional standpoint, and may be in some respects inconsistent, 
but my experience in advising treatment for different forms of 
diarrhea indicates such a division of the subject as I have made as 
the one which is most likely to help poultrymen to apply in each 
case the line of treatment best adapted to it. 



78 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Diarrhea, Simple Diarrhea. 

This is a very common trouble. In many fowls it is constitu- 
tional and chronic, and continues in mild form all through the 
life of the fowl, never perhaps dangerous, but nearly always in 
some degree detrimental. Few fowls do not have more or less 
diarrhea. Many cases recover quickly, and without treatment. At 
the same time diarrhea is a symptom in many dangerous diseases, 
and for this reason, and because the general debility and local sus- 
ceptibility which result from a chronic diarrhea make fowls less 
able to resist disease, right conditions of the bowels should be 
maintained. 

Symptoms. — A mild diarrhea shows no symptoms that attract 
notice but the condition of the excrement. Normally the droppings 
of fowls are rather dry, retain the shape in which they are voided, 
and may readily be removed, leaving the spot on which they had 
fallen either slightly stained, or not at all. From droppings boards 
on which land plaster, dry earth, sifted coal ashes, or other absorb- 
ent of the kind has been sprinkled, the droppings, if of the normal 
consistency and character, may readily be brushed or scraped, leav- 
ing no trace whatever, and only very slightly soiling broom, hoe, 
or shovel. 

Without marked departure from the normal droppings may be 
wet — watery — with a tendency to flatten on the surface on which 
they rest. On boards they moisten the surface for some distance 
around them. On an earth floor or a surface well covered with 
dust or other absorbent, the moisture from them will cause a con- 
siderable amount of the absorbent to adhere to the droppings, the 
excess of water in them is readily taken up by any absorbent 
present. This condition of the droppings is constitutional with 
some fowls, and characteristic of some methods of feeding. It is 
perhaps most appropriately described as " looseness." It is not 
diarrhea, though fowls having it are probably more susceptible to 
intestinal diseases than others. It may continue for a long time, 
and even throughout the life of the fowl apparently without being 
detrimental to its health or productiveness. When such stock is 
used for breeding, however, an unusual amount of bowel trouble is 
likely to occur in chicks produced from it. Mere looseness of the 
bowels is not accompanied by any offensive odor. 



5IMPLL DIARRHEA. 79 

When the excrement becomes soft and pasty or liquid in con- 
sistency and whitish, yellowish, greenish or brownish in color, and 
has a more or less marked offensive odor, the condition is properly 
described as diarrhea. The evacuations in diarrhea are often of 
such consistency that the water in them is not readily taken up by 
absor1)ent§ with which they come in contact, and they are decidedly 
nasty, not only adhering to utensils used in removing them, and 
making ordinary cleaning difficult, but soiling the feathers of the 
fowls and sticking to roosts, nests, and feed troughs. 

Causes. — Diarrhea may come from any cause that affects the 
digestive organs. As may be noted in reading over this book, 
diarrhea occurs as a symptom in a very large proportion of the dis- 
eases of poultry. The immediate cause of diarrhea occurring inde- 
pendently is generally improper feeding. Sometimes the effects 
are almost instantaneous, and continue hardly longer than the time 
required for the disturbing substance to pass throtfgh the system. 
Again the diarrhea develops s4owly, and though it may be corrected 
without medical treatment, by simply correcting the diet it requires 
some time after correct conditions are established before the diar- 
rhea completely disappears. 

Unfavorable temperature conditions developing colds which seem 
to affect the bowels rather than the head, throat, and lungs — the 
parts most susceptible to such conditions — cause diarrhea much 
oftener than is generally supposed. In such cases the excrement is 
apt to show a preponderance of watery or frothy mucus which 
adheres to the feathers about the vent, and is intensely irritating to 
the skin. Diarrhea from bad temperature conditions may occur 
though the food and method of using it are beyond criticism, but 
in the greater number of instances it seems to be a case of a cold 
settling in the weakest organs, and the development of diarrhea 
merely hastened as a result of it, or diarrhea produced by a combi- 
nation of causes, when the operation of a single cause had not 
created any disturbance. 

Young chickens are much more susceptible to diarrhea than adult 
fowls. This is especially noted in the effects of wrong temperatures 
on brooder chicks, — the temperature conditions being so difficult to 
control. Young chickens are almost invariably more easily affected 
by improper feeding than are adult fowls. This is in part because 



80 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

the organs are more delicate and sensitive, and in part because they 
are so much smaller, and therefore more seriouslj irritated by the 
foreign substances often given with the food. 

Treatment. — Cases of simple diarrhea, due to improper feeding 
and chronic looseness of the bowels, are most satisfactorily treated 
by correcting the diet. Ordinarily no other treatment will be 
necessary. The error in feeding must be found and eliminated in 
the one class of cases. In the other, a system of feeding adapted 
to the peculiar constitutional characteristics of the fowls must be 
followed — usually " dry feeding," that is, giving all grain food, 
including mill stuffs, dry. With some fowls it is only necessary 
to continue the dry feeding until the looseness has disappeared 
entirely, when they may gradually be put back on the ordinary diet, 
and the looseness will not reappear. In other cages looseness can 
only be avoided by constant dry feeding. 

When fowls having a chronic looseness of the bowels are useji 
for breeding, they should be " dry fed" for some months prior to 
the breeding season, and all through it. By this means care being 
taken to avoid other causes of bowel trouble in the chicks, the 
tendency is much reduced in a single season, and I have known 
cases where it seemed to have been overcome within a year. 

When catarrhal discharges indicate colds, treatment seldom needs 
to go beyond keeping the fowls dry, warm, and comfortable, and 
giving suitable food. Nearly all cases of simple diarrhea yield 
readily to simple treatments if given before the trouble has been 
allowed to develop into something worse. If for any reason a sick 
fowl seems slow to respond to dietary and hygienic treatment try 
one of the following treatments : — 

" A teaspoonful of sweet oil every four hours, and feed with 
crust of bread scalded with boiling milk." Vale. 

*' One teaspoonful castor oil, followed in an hour with five grains 
Dover's powder." Sanborn. 

" A teaspoonful of castoi oil, followed by 5 grains of rhubarb, 10 
grains of carbonate of soda, or a grain of opium." Hill. 

" Chlorodyne, 3 to 6 drops in a dessert spoonful of water or port 
wine." Hill. 

'* For severe cases, a pill containing i grain each tannic acid and 
opium." Hill. 



INFLAMMATION OF THL BOWELS. 81 

Severe Diarrhea — Enteritis — Dysentery. 

The lack of harmony among authorities on poultry diseases as ta 
the distinctions to be made between diarrhea, severe diarrhea, 
enteritis, and dysentery, becomes apparent on the most casual com- 
parison of the different discussions of bowel complaints. But the 
more one seeks to find the truth in a reconciliation of their differ- 
ences, the more likely is he to come to the conclusion that their 
disagreements can make little practical difference to the poultryman 
treating diseases or studying conditions of disease in his flocks. 
The differences which might be confusing cease to be seriously 
troublesome as soon as we come to an appreciation of two facts : — 
( I ) that in the main the authorities differ on names and classifica- 
tions rather than on essential facts; (2) that in most cases it is 
practically impossible to distinguish during the life of the fowl 
>etween some of the different forms of acute bowel trouble. 

We may consider these acute forms of bowel trouble as resulting 
from a variety of causes which may be roughly grouped in three 
classes : — 

I. — Inflammation of the bowels developing from simple 
diarrhea. 

2. — Inflammation of the bowels resulting from poisonous or 
mechanically irritant substances. 

3. — Inflammation of the bowels due to the presence of 
parasitic germs and spores. 
Whatever the cause of the disease, the general symptoms are 
much the same. Perhaps the only features that afford any indica- 
tion of the probable cause of a particular case of inflammation of 
the intestines are the rapidity of development of the disease and the 
color of the diarrheal discharges — and these are very unreliable 
guides. The practical method of proceeding in cases of serious, 
bowel trouble is to apply the general treatment needed to allay the 
inflammation of the intestines and keep up the strength of the fowl,, 
and at the same time seek to discover the cause. Having found the 
cause, special treatment appropriate to the case may be given if 
necessary, but in any event, steps should be taken to make it 
inoperative. To find the cause of an outbreak of dysentery or 
enteritis, is one of the most puzzling things in the treatment of 
poultry diseases. 



S2 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Before describing symptoms and treating more particularly of 
causes I will try to give briefly a statement of the ideas of author- 
ities on bowel complaints, which I hope may help readers to avoid 
the confusion of mind concerning them which has been an unfortu- 
nate result of the disagreements of the doctors, and of carelessness 
in the use of names. 

The term, "enteritis," has for some years been growing in com- 
mon usage. A decade ago it was quite unfamiliar in this country. 
(Speaking only of its use among poultry men). A severe diarrhea 
accompanied by bloody discharges was more likely to be called 
dysentery, or bloody dysentery, or bloody flux. A severe diarrhea 
with greenish discharges was commonly called cholera. 

Under some circumstances it would probably be impossible for 
anyone but a specialist to positively distinguish between cholera 
and some forms of enteritis. But the ordinary poultryman is 
usually safe in assuming that symptoms which might indicate 
cholera are not cholera unless developed in connection with the 
temperature and climatic conditions favorable to the specific germ 
which causes cholera. These are extreme heat, and a considerable 
degree of humidity. In any of the more temperate and cooler 
sections of the country cases of genuine chicken cholera are 
almost unknown. In warmer sections they occur probably with 
some frequency, but still are not nearly so prevalent as is commonly 
supposed. In the northern and western parts of this country one 
may feel quite safe in diagnosing a disease as enteritis rather than 
cholera, unless it occurs during or following a period of very hot 
and quite damp weather. Under such circumstances there would 
be some uncertainty, but still with the chances against the disease 
being cholera. Hence in the great majority of cases in which 
aggravated diarrhea occurs as a symptom it is safe to assume that 
the trouble is not cholera, which is due to a specific germ, but 
enteritis, which may be caused by any one or by a combination of 
several of many causes, and which, generally considered, is a far 
less deadly and dangerous disease. It is important for the poultry 
keeper who suspects he has cholera to understand what is the prob- 
ability of his surmise being correct, because the general attitude 
toward cholera is one of helplessness, while with enteritis one may 
reasonably assume that he has a better chance to check the malady, 



GA5TRO-INTE5TINAL TROUBLES. 83 

and at any rate should appreciate that it is due to a cause which 
must be found and properly treated in connection with the treat- 
ment of the disease. 

The dictionary definitions, presumed to have been furnished by 
authorities on the use of medical terms, make a distinction between 
dysentery and enteritis. Dysentery they indicate as properly 
applicable to inflammation of the large intestine ; enteritis to 
inflammation of the small intestine. Even the definitions which 
indicate such a distinction do not observe it. Dysentery as a 
poultry disease is mentioned by only one of my authorities on 
poultry diseases, and described only in an incidental and unsatis- 
factory way. Another considers enteritis not as a disease but as a 
symptom of a disease, which is too fine a distinction for laymen, 
and apparently, also, for some other medical men. 

Salmon presents the most consistent arrangement and differentia- 
tion of enteric, or intestinal troubles. The name enteritis means 
literally inflammation of the intestine. Every case of inflammation 
of the intestines he considers as some form of enteritis. Gastritis, 
or inflammation of the stomach, and enteritis, or inflammation of 
the intestine, frequently occur in conjunction. Perhaps neither 
condition could become chronic without inducing the other. As it 
is practically impossible to say from the symptoms of a living 
bird whether inflammation is limited to one part of the digestive 
tract, or extends to others, this authority describes simple diarrhea 
as (in its simplest form or early stage) gastro-intestinal catarrh, 
and (in more advanced stage) gastro-enteritis. These terms would 
probably cover all cases of diarrhea due to ordinary causes — that 
is, to errors in feeding, to poor quality of food, and to tempera- 
ture. He notes as the distinguishing feature of post mortem exam- 
ination of such cases that in cases that are merely catarrhal only 
superficial changes are found in the parts affected, while in gastritis 
and enteritis the inflammation goes deeper, reddening and thicken- 
ing the parts. Acute enteritis, due to poisoning, he calls toxic- 
gastro-enteritis. Enteritis due to bacteria, of which several are 
described, he calls bacterial enteritis. Enteritis caused by protozoa 
(of which two species are noted as producing the disease in poul- 
try), he calls psoro-spermic enteritis. 

With this explanation of terms and their use the reader may go 



84 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

back to the simple statements : that enteritis is inflammation of the 
intestines ; that it is commonly associated with a like condition of 
other parts of the digestive tract ; that there are numerous causes 
for it ; that the general symptoms are the same for all forms of the 
disease ; that the general treatment suitable for one form will be 
measurably suitable for any form, and may therefore be begun at 
once as soon as the general character of the disease is discovered ; 
that the different forms of the disease require appropriate special 
medical or sanitary treatment ; and that therefore it is essential 
that the cause and precise nature of the trouble be ascertained 
if the disease is to be eradicated. 

Symptoms of Enteritis. 

The first symptoms of enteritis are the general symptoms of 
weakness and dullness which are seen in most severe diseases. 
Accompanying these we often see the reluctance to move, and evi- 
dent painfulness of movement caused by the pain due to the 
inflamed condition of the abdomen. The inflammation may be so 
great that the high temperature of the bowels is noticeable to the 
touch of the hand placed upon the abdomen of the fowl. There is 
usually severe diarrhea; sometimes diarrhea and constipation alter- 
nating. The evacuations may show any or all of the color condi- 
tions commonly observed in cases of severe diarrhea, watery, mixed 
watery and solid, whitish, greenish, bluish green, brown, red, 
bloody. Particular colors or conditions may represent the degree 
to which different organs are affected, or indicate to an experienced 
eye the progress of the disease, but to the layman they have no 
special significance. 

Causes of Enteritis. 

These have already been mentioned as comprising three general 
classes. Of the first class, — developments from simple diarrhea it 
is not necessary to say more than has been said under causes of 
simple diarrhea, and the references to causes made under the head 
we are now considering. 

Poisoning, — toxic-ingastro-enteritis, — occurs oftenest in flocks of 
fowls having their liberty in towns, but is likely to occur in any 
flock having access to places where articles poisonous to them are 
left. In addition to the list of substances mentioned as causing 
catarrh of the crop (p. 66) other common substances of a poison- 



CONTAGIOUS BOWLL DI5LASL5. 85 

ous or acutely irritating character are salt, concentrated Ije, nitrate 
of soda, (used as fertilizer) arsenic, (in Paris green) copper, (in 
spraying solutions) and ergot of rye are mentioned. Hill also cites 
the use of severe purgatives as a common cause of irritation of the 
intestines. 

Bacterial enteritis is propagated by contagion and develops most 
freely under filthy conditions, and (of course) in hot, wet weather 
when all the evils of filth are most apparent. Psorospermic enter- 
itis Salmon regards as very different from bacterial, both in char- 
acter and symptoms, but I think it doubtful whether a layman 
could observe the differences and differentiate the treatments intelli- 
gently. The only marked difference in the symptoms described is 
in the color of the excrement, and this — though perhaps useful to 
a professional — seems a most uncertain and unreliable guide to 
ordinary people. Besides these differences are possibly individual 
differences, or due to complications, for I have had correspondents 
describing the symptoms of different fowls sick at the same time, 
and apparently from the same cause, give descriptions of diarrheal 
conditions which in one corresponded closely with Salmon's 
description for bacterial, and in another with his description for 
psorospermic enteritis. These fsorosferms are minute parasites, 
supposed to be taken into the system with the food and drink. 
They produce white patches or points in the walls of the intestines 
which resemble tuberculous growths, and may be mistaken for 
them. These parasites infest the ground on which affected fowls run. 
Treatments for Enteritic Inflammation. 

Under this head I give the several treatments recommended by 
different authorities, indicating with each the term applied to the 
form of the disease for which it is especially recommended. My 
object in doing this is twofold : First a variety of remedies gen- 
erally applicable to troubles of this kind is given, and in emer- 
gencies the available one, though not perhaps the best, may be 
used pending a more exact diagnosis of the trouble, or the procur- 
ing of the remedy judged most appropriate. Second, by indicat- 
ing the precise term applied by each authority quoted to the form 
for which his remedy is given. I hope to avoid possible misrepre- 
sentations which might occur were I to undertake to harmonize the 
use of terms. 



86 THE COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

For Severe Diarrhea. (Salmon). 

A tablespoonful of olive oil, followed with 1-8 grain powdered 
opium and 2 grains subnitrate of bismuth every four hours. If 
diarrhea continues after subject seems to be recovering, check with 
laudanum, 5 to 10 drops, or give 10 drops of a mixture of equal 
parts laudanum and tincture of catechu ; or in mild cases add one 
or two drams of sulphate of iron to the pint of drinking water. 
For Dysentery. (Sanborn). 

" Ten grains sulphate of magnesia, followed in three hours by 
five grains of Dover's powder. If dysentery continues, two grains 
of Dover's powder may be given night and morning, but treatment 
in these cases is not often successful." 
For Enteritis. (Hill). 

Give salad oil to remove irritating matter. Follow this with 
mucilaginous liquids, such as tepid barley water, arrowroot, milk, 
and isinglass. Keep the bird on an ample and very soft bed. 
When convalescing give chlorate of potash in the drinking water, 
or administer a five grain dose. Feed boiled barley and rice with 
warm milk and bread for at least a fortnight. 
For Enteritis. (Salmon). 

" To soothe the bowel give a little sweet oil every three hours, 
and feed sparingly with raw egg and crust of bread scalded with 
boiling milk. In cases where the patient is frequently straining, 
increase the dose of oil, and add to it two or three drops of 
chlorodyne." — Vale. 
For Bacterial Enteritis. (Salmon). 

Scrupulous cleanliness should be observed about houses and 
yards. Give only clean water and sound sweet food. Disinfect by 
saturating floor and woodwork of buildings with five per cent 
solution of carbolic acid, followed by whitewash. Scald drinking 
vessels and feed troughs with boiling water. Continue cleaning 
and disinfection at intervals as long as disease exists. For medical 
treatment use one of the following : — 

Subnitrate of bismuth, 3 grains ; powdered cinnamon or cloves, 
I grain ; powdered willow charcoal, 3 grains. Give twice a day 
mixed with food or made into pills with flour and water. 

Subnitrate of bismuth, 3 grains ; bicarbonate of soda, i grain ; 



TREATMENTS FOR ENTERITIS. 87 

powdered cinchona bark, 2 grains ; mix and give three times a day 
in a paste made with rice flour. When diarrhea is arrested, bis- 
muth and soda are no longer needed. Give as a tonic : Powdered 
fennel, anis, coriander, and cinchona — each 30 grains; powdered 
gentian and ginger each one dram ; powdered sulphate of iron, 15 
grains. Mix and give in the feed so that each fowl will get 2 to 14. 
grains twice a day. 
For Psorospermic Enteritis. (Salmon). 

Clean up and disinfect as for bacterial enteritis. Hyposulphite 
of soda, 5 grains; quinine (sulphate) i grain; subnitrate of bis- 
muth, 2 grains; give two or three times a day to adult fowls, in 
less proportion to young chicks ; or, a mixture of equal part& 
powdered fennel, anis, coriander, gentian, ginger, and aloes may 
be given in doses of about five grains for adults mixed with soft 
food. 

If disinfection and changes of ground are not successful, dispose 
of all fowls, plough up the ground, and after a time start with new 
stock. 



CHAPTER VIII 



^ome Peculiarly Subtle and Dangerous Diseases. 



IN THIS chapter I have grouped together several of the most 
serious diseases, difficult of identification by outward symp- 
toms, which do not seem to me to be appropriately included in 
any other chapter. They are mostly contagious germ diseases of 
infrequent occurrence in comparison with some of those we have 
been considering, hard to identify with certainty, and likely to 
quite wipe out flocks in which they obtain a footing. In infec- 
tious origin and malignant character diphtheritic roup might well 
be included in the group, and the contagious forms of enteritis 
present, in a considerable degree, the characteristic features of the 
xliseases here considered, but those two were so closely associated 
with other diseases that I think the general reader will get a better 
appreciation of their nature, and the best methods of dealing with 
them, by studying them in the connections in which they have 
been presented. 

Diphtheritic roup presents plainly — sometimes with offensive 
prominence — symptoms the poultry keeper may positively identify 
by his senses of sight and smell. In enteritis the difficulty is not 
«o much in identifying the disease as in finding the cause of the 
particular outbreak of it under consideration. But most of the 
■diseases considered here develop obscurely, and originate in causes 
not so readily avoided by observance of common precautions in 
<iiet, sanitation, and general management, and being comparatively 
rare, and propagating with more independence than the common 



PRLVALLNCL OF TUBLRCUL05IS. 89 

diseases, there is not the same ever present necessity of guarding 
against them, nor the same grounds for assurance of safety from 
them through the use of ordinary preventive measures. So it has 
seemed to me that the independent nature of these diseases war- 
ranted separate treatment of them, and that this would give a 
desirable emphasis to the discussion of their causes, character, 
and treatment. 

Tuberculosis. 

This disease is so alarmingly prevalent among human beings 
and in domestic animals that its general character and effects are 
well understood. It is a germ disease produced by a peculiar 
bacillus, communicated by contagion, fastening most readily upon 
constitutionally weak or debilitated stock, and, in adult fowls, 
seems especially apt to develop from persistent colds which do not 
run into some of the more readily distinguished developments of 
colds. 

Fowls in general good health and condition may be constantly 
exposed to contagion without becoming affected, but where the 
contagion exists there is always the danger of its gaining a foot- 
hold in the system of any fowl that is slightly indisposed, while by 
the gradual increase of the proportion of the flock affected at last 
a point is reached where chances of contagion are so abundant 
that it is almost impossible for any fowl long to escape infection. 
As in human beings, the progress of the disease may be rapid or 
slow. In the latter case it is less likely to be detected, for affected 
fowls may continue in fair flesh, quite active and productive, and 
the disease may make great headway in a flock without its presence 
being suspected, until, perhaps, a season comes when it is almost 
impossible to raise chicks from the stock, and investigation reveals 
the cause of the trouble. 

The tuberculosis of birds is said to be not readily communicable 
to mammals ; nor are fowls readily affected by contagion from 
mammalian tuberculosis. Salmon regards the disease in birds and 
mammals as two varieties of the same malady, not distinct in form, 
but the germs peculiar to each so differentiated by having grown 
so long under different conditions that neither will readily develop 
outside of its special class of victims. As infection of birds from 
tuberculosis mammals, and vice versa, though infrequent, is not 



90 THE COMMON-SENSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

impossible, the same precautions should be taken against contagion 
from one as from the other. While tuberculosis oftenest develops 
in the internal organs, and no special external symptoms may 
occur until the affected fowl is in the last stages of the disease, it 
may affect the bones and joints, producing swelling and stiffness 
of the joints, (likely to be considered rheumatism), or may form 
tumors or ulcers. These latter forms, however, seem to be com- 
paratively rare in poultry. 

Symptoms. — A contagious disease generally presenting no 
special outward symptoms, and when developing externally pre- 
senting symptoms resembling those of more common, non-conta- 
gious troubles, requires expert diagnosis to make its identification 
positive. The circumstances which warrant suspicions of tuber- 
culosis in the flock are thus stated by Woods : 

"When brooder chicks seem sleepy, droopy, pick up their food 
and drop it indifferently without swallowing it, have a diarrhea 
that does not yield to treatment, cough, and ' pip,' and have 
swollen joints, lameness, and pale wasted combs, suspect tubercu- 
losis. If the chicks have fits from no apparent cause, if they eat, 
but do not seem to grow, if they become deformed, with bulging 
joints, 'roach' or humped backs, or are stunted, thin, and wasted, 
suspect tuberculosis. These symptoms will not be likely to all 
appear in one chick, but when the flock presents specimens with 
many of these symptoms present, it is time to hold post mortem 
examinations to discover, if possible, what is wrong. 

" With adult fowls the disease may show itself in many ways, or 
may be present unsuspected. On general principles, suspect cases 
of coughs and colds which do not yield to treatment, and diarrheas 
which are not checked by the ordinary methods of treatment. 
Tubercular fowls, when well advanced, usually have a persistent 
diarrhea, pale combs, listless sleepy expression, and lose weight. 
There may be lameness, swollen joints, and bone deformities. 
Sometimes the swellings break down and ulcerate,, Suspect all 
ulcers and tumors containing ' cheesy' matter. 

" In post mortem examination, if you find any of the organs of 
the body more or less filled with grayish or whitish tubercles 
(points or nodules) varying in size from a pin-point to that of a 



TUBERCULOSIS — CAU5L5 AND TRLATMLNT 91 

small bean, or find tumors with soft cheesj centers, jou can be 
sure that the trouble is tuberculosis. 

" In joung chicks the tubercles will be more commonly found in 
the lungs. In adult fowls the disease is more apt to be general, 
and the liver and abdominal organs show a large percentage of 
tubercles. The intestines may be covered with fine gray or whitish 
points, or may have thickened, ulcerated walls, and partial stric- 
tures of the gut. The thin membrane covering the intestines may 
be covered with tubercles, or show only a few, and may be thick- 
ened and adhere to the walls of the abdominal cavity or to the 
intestines by tough membranous attachments. Make a careful 
search for tubercles when you find a large soft liver, abnormally 
distended gall sack, and discolored, congested lungs in old or 
young specimens." 

While the above statement covers the points which may be dis- 
covered by the eye, I think that the statement as to the certainty of 
identification by tubercles and tumors should be qualified, and that 
here as at other points it would be better to say "suspect tubercu- 
losis." For while a medical man might not easily fall into the 
same error, others have frequently mistaken other nodules, patches 
or ulcers for tuberculosis. Salmon declares that the only positive 
diagnosis is that which identifies the bacillus, and this I judge 
from results in cases when I have referred correspondents who 
thought they had tuberculosis in their flocks to the veterinary 
departments of various state agricultural colleges, is so likely to be 
the case, that I would advise consulting an expert in every case 
where there were grounds for suspicion of tuberculosis. 

Cause. — Tuberculosis has a single cause — the bacillus tuber- 
culosis. The cause operates through contagion which may be 
carried and transmitted in many ways, but chiefly by contact with 
tuberculous fowls or their discharges. 

Treatment. — Treatment for tuberculosis in fowls after it has 
advanced to such a stage in an individual as to be suspected, or in 
flocks in which it appears to be established, is not profitable. The 
best thing to do with the individual is to kill it ; with the flock to 
clean it out, thoroughly cleanse and disinfect the premises, and 
begin over with new, healthy stock. A fowl known to be tuber- 
culous should not be used for food or bestowed where animals 



92 THE COMMON-SEN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

might eat the carcass. The body should be burned or deeply buried. 
In cleaning out a flock in which there is much tuberculosis, there 
may be specimens fit for food, and it is not always a simple matter 
to decide what disposition to make of such, and how to judge 
them. It is probably safe to use for food all birds in good flesh 
and condition, with plump, healthy skin, and showing none of the 
external symptoms of the disease. The fact that a fowl was in poor 
condition w^ould not necessarily indicate tuberculosis, though under 
the circumstances it would not be advisable to market such a fowl 
without further assurance of freedom from disease. Such assur- 
ance could be obtained only by drawing the carcass and inspecting 
the internal organs, a proceeding which is not practicable where 
poultry is sold undrawn. Hence, it will in most such cases be 
better to sell only those which show good quality and condition. 
This point as a little aside, but the question inevitably comes up to 
the poultryman considering the method of dealing with a flock 
containing many tuberculous fowls. 

The preventive treatment of tuberculosis consists in making and 
keeping houses and appliances accessible to fresh air and sunlight. 
(Sunlight and air are generally destructive to disease germs, and 
in avoiding contagion). The first part of the treatment is easy, 
the last more difficult, for the germs of the disease may unwittingly 
be introduced with new fowls, or with fowls returning from shows, 
or in various other ways. However, by sanitary precautions and 
by severe culling of stock lacking in vigor, the fiock may be kept 
at a high point of power of resistance, and this perhaps is the most 
important thing of all. 

Cholera. 

Cholera, as stated in discussing some of the diseases commonly 
mistaken for cholera, is in the greater part of this country of rare 
occurrence. Previous to the publication of Salmon's "Diseases of 
Poultry," American writers on poultry diseases generally followed 
the European, especially the English authorities. Salmon based 
his description of the disease on symptoms exhibited by fowls in 
which he had produced the disease by inoculation. These symp- 
toms he found in every case different in some important particulars 
from the symptoms observed in Europe. Woods, writing in Farm- 
Poultry, in 1902, gave his observations on an epidemic of cholera 



SYMPTOMS OF CHOLLRA. 93 

which occurred in a flock in his charge the previous year. His 
observations coincide generally with those of Salmon, especially as 
to the points of difference in symptoms in Europe and America. 
At about the same time Drs. Curtice and Smith were investigating 
a very serious epidemic of supposed cholera in Rhode Island. 
This disease they discussed in a bulletin* as "Fowl Typhoid, A 
Disease Sometimes Mistaken for Cholera." From that description 
of the disease I infer that, if their diagnosis was correct, the dis- 
agreement between European and American observations might be 
explained on the supposition that in Europe typhoid had generally 
been mistaken for cholera. 

But here, as in so many cases we have had to consider, the differ- 
ences of authorities can make little practical difference to poultry- 
men. Only the bacteriologist by laboratory tests can positively 
distinguish between these diseases. Outside of the laboratory they 
present much the same symptoms, and require similar preventive 
treatments. 

Symptoms. — "The earliest indication of the disease," says Sal- 
mon, "is a yellow coloration of the urates, or that part of the 
excrement which is excreted by the kidnejs. This in health is a 
pure white, though it is frequently tinted with yellow as a result of 
other disorders than cholera. While therefore this yellowish color- 
ation of the urates is not an absolutely certain proof of cholera, it 
is a valuable indication when the disease has appeared in a flock 
and an effort is being made to check its course by isolating birds as 
soon as affected. In a few cases the first symptom is a diarrhea in 
which the excrement is passed in large quantities, and consists 
almost entirely of white urates mixed with colorless mucus. Gen- 
erally the diarrhea is a prominent symptom. The excrement is 
voided frequently, and consists largely of urates suspended in a 
thin, transparent, sometimes frothy mucus. The urates have a 
deep yellow color, which in the later stages of the disease may 
change to greenish or even a deep green." 

Woods observes that the diarrhea has a characteristic fetid odor, 
which lik the "roup smell," once identified, is ever afterwards 
recognized instantly. 

'Bulletin 87 of tbe Rhode Island Agricultural Experimeut Station. 



94 THL COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

The course of the disease may be rapid or slow in its progress 
through the flock. It may take all within a few days, or the fowls 
may drop off by twos and threes through a period of several weeks. 
After the first symptoms appear the development in individual cases 
is usually rapid. Forty cases investigated by Salmon averaged 
three days, but many birds die within a few hours after the diarrhea 
sets in. The time required to develop the disease after exposure or 
inoculation is given by Salmon as four to twenty days, and by 
Woods as three days to two weeks, each giving the result of his 
own observations. After the diarrhea sets in fever develops, and 
there is drowsiness, weakness, emaciation and exhaustion — the 
common general symptoms of virulent or fatal disease. Both Sal- 
mon and Woods describe the color of the comb as pale. The Euro- 
pean writers describe it as dark. Curtice and Smith describe the 
comb in fowl typhoid as in some cases pale, in others dark. 
Affected fowls frequently die in convulsions. 

Post mortem examinations show general inflammation and con- 
gestion of the organs, the liver greatly enlarged and softened, and 
sometimes greenish colored; gall abundant, thick and dark; the 
kidneys congested, with accumulations of the yellow urates seen in 
the evacuations ; the gizzard and intestines contain green fluid. 
The heart and lungs may be affected, though the principal seat of 
the disease is in the digestive organs. 

Cause. — Cholera is caused by a very minute germ, transmitted 
by contagion. The germ is said to be breathed into the body, or 
taken in with the food, or transmitted by copulation, or through 
wounds in the skin of the fowl. Once admitted to the body the 
germs multiply in the blood and other liquids of the body, thus 
affecting every organ and function. Salmon says that in acute 
cases death results from poisoning by the substances produced by 
the germs, and in chronic cases by the interference with the func- 
tions of digestion, assimilation, and nutrition. The germ is said 
to grow best at 85 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It has itself no 
power of movement, and depends for transmission upon men, 
animals, fowls, and wild birds. It is said that with such transmis- 
sion prevented a separation of ten feet will insure immunity from 
contagion. Perhaps the most common method of distributing the 
contagion is on the feet of persons or animals coming from infected 



TRLATMLNT OF CHOLERA. 95 

premises. The germs in the droppings of the fowls adhere to the 
shoes or feet, and so may be carried long distances. Birds alight- 
ing on infected premises may also distribute the contagion wher- 
ever they go. 

Treatment. — The best authorities on the subject regard genuine 
cholera as practically incurable. It is said that none of the alleged 
remedies have proved effective in cases known to be true cholera, 
and the presumption is that the persons supposing they had cured 
cholera with them were treating some other disease. While treat- 
ment of affected individuals is regarded as futile, the spread of the 
disease may be limited and the disease stamped out by disinfection 
to destroy the germs on the premises, and by proper measures to 
prevent their further distribution. 

Woods, in the article to which reference has been made, gives 
this very concise statement of the method of dealing with cholera : 
— " As soon as the disease is discovered establish a pest house 
remote from other poultry buildings, a place that can be easily and 
thoroughly disinfected. Isolate all suspected cases in the pest 
house as soon as you can find them. Give these birds a few drops 
of creolin or sulpho-napthol in their drinking water ( just enough 
to turn it faintly milky), or give them drinking water containing 
one-tenth of a grain tablet of corrosive sublimate to the quart of 
water. Some of the quarantined birds may recover without other 
medicine than that advised for the drinking water. Individual 
cases may be treated in the case of valuable birds. Give a one one- 
thousandth of a grain tablet of corrosive sublimate (mercury 
bichloride) every three hours. Food given should be easily 
digested soft food, and fed sparingly. All droppings should be 
disinfected and burned or buried deeply. All birds which show 
marked symptoms of the disease had better be killed and cremated 
at once. Kill them by a sharp blow with a blunt club, breaking the 
neck. Do not draw blood, as the blood is infectious, and you do 
not want to spill it. If they bleed scrape up all blood and burn 
with the body, and disinfect the place where it fell. Rake up and 
burn all litter used in houses or runs occupied by infected birds. 
Spray the runs and all parts of the buildings with a strong solution 
of creolin or sulpho-napthol, or a one per cent solution of sulphuric 
acid in water. The proportion of creolin or sulpho-napthol is 



96 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

about one teaspoonful to an ordinary wooden bucketful of drinking 
water. Do not use any litter until you are sure that the disease is 
eradicated. Thoroughly disinfect everything that could possibly be 
contaminated by the infected fowls, and repeat this as often as you 
find a new case. The runs or yards should be thoroughly disin- 
fected, and should be plowed up often. If no new cases develop 
within twenty days after the last known case was quarantined and 
the premises disinfected, the disease may be regarded as checked. 
Remember that it is a germ disease, highly contagious, and that 
prompt recognition and treatment and thorough disinfection are 
the only means of stamping it out." 

Salmon's directions for treatment (which Woods follows in a 
general way) while much the same, note some additional points 
worth repeating and observing. He suggests that, if possible the 
healthy fowls be removed to new houses and yards, and that they 
be kept confined to small runs which may be thoroughly disinfected 
as necessary. He calls attention to the impossibility of disinfect- 
ing a large range, and the difficulty of checking the disease while 
fowls are at large on an infected range. An outbreak of cholera on 
a farm where the fowls have free range usually means the extermi- 
nation of that flock, and practically the abandonment of poultry 
keeping for several years until by natural processes the germs have 

been destroyed. 

Aspergillosis. 

Aspergillosis, or mycosis of the air passages, is one of the dis- 
eases often mistaken for tuberculosis. It seems to be a very com- 
mon disease. When only the outward symptoms are noted poultry 
keepers who have it in their flocks are likely to call it "going 
light." If post mortem examinations of birds dying of it are made, 
tubercles caused by the fungi from which the disease takes its 
name, may be found, and from their resemblance to consumptive 
tubercles are generally taken as a symptom of that disease. I think 
there is no doubt that a great many unaccountable deaths and 
epidemics in the poultry yard are due to this disease. Many cases 
are reported to me which might be aspergillosis, but it is only 
occasionally that the accompanying statement of symptoms and 
conditions mentions conditions which, considered in connection 
with the symptoms, make it reasonably certain that the disease is 



CAUSE AND TRLATMENT OF ASPERGILLOSIS 97 

aspergillosis. Yet from the fact that the conditions favorable to 
the disease are very common, I suspect that a great many poultry 
keepers have the disease and do not know it. 

Cause. — The disease is caused by fungi which grow upon dead 
or decaying (including musty or moldy) matter, and being taken 
into the system in respiration or with the food, these fungi may 
increase in the internal organs of the fowl so much as to seriously 
interfere with their functions, producing emaciation and death. 
The interference with the action of the affected organs produces 
complications with various diseases, and when these develop a 
pronounced type it is usual to look for the cause of the discovered 
disease, and, finding it, look no further. 

The several kinds of molds or fungi which cause aspergillosis 
develop, especially in warm summer weather, on musty hay and 
straw, and also on musty and moldy grains. The plainest cases 
reported to me have been cases where musty litter was used. In 
such instances the disease has often seemed to be of a contagious 
character, nearly the entire flock being affected. Suspected cases 
of aspergillosis from the use of musty and moldy grains have 
rarely shown an epidemic character. Many fowls seem to be 
immune alike to the attacks of these fungi and to any other bad 
effects from damaged grain. It is probable that in many, if not 
most instances where feeding damaged grains gave bad results 
almost immediately that the trouble was due to these fungi. 

Treatment. — Medical treatment of the disease when once estab- 
lished is not often effective. Neither of the treatments mentioned 
by Salmon, fumigation with tar vapor, and internal applications of 
tincture of iodine or iodide of potassium, is accompanied by definite 
instructions satisfactory to one who wants specific directions how 
to proceed. The fumigation requires judgment to avoid getting 
the vapor so dense as to injure the fowls. The dose of the other 
remedies mentioned is not given. This lack of specific directions 
is not of importance in cases where treatment is futile. The pre- 
vention of the disease is easily accomplished by avoiding the use 
of musty and moldy litter, and of damaged grains — particularly 
grains in which molding or mustiness seems to be actively pro- 
gressing. The absolute prohibition of the use of all grains, foods, 
or litter not known to be "sterilized" is not necessary. Under 



98 THE COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

ordinary conditions very few, if any, fowls would be seriously 
affected by occasional use of slightly musty or moldy materials or 
foods, but the constant use of such articles is dangerous. 

Anemia and Allied Diseases. 

Poultry keepers often observe in their flocks a small percentage 
of fowls which at first attract attention by the lack of color in the 
comb and head, and then gradually become emaciated and waste 
away without any pronounced symptoms of disease. Such fowls 
are sometimes supposed to be "consumptive," but the term in 
common use among poultry keepers to describe them is "going 
light." The condition of such fowls has long been recognized as 
due to an impoverished condition of the blood. A human being 
showing the same symptoms we say is " anemic." Authorities on 
poultry diseases generally have adopted that term, and call the dis- 
ease in fowls anemia. Salmon entirely ignores the general use of 
the term anemia, and calls going light "asthenia," a term which 
applies rather to the failing vitality or strength of the fowl, and is 
indeed a Greek equivalent for the phrase, "going light." The 
-disease he describes as asthenia he attributes (apparently on the 
basis of a single investigation by Dr. Dawson), to a peculiar germ, 
-different from the microbes of bacterial enteritis, but producing 
the same effects, and requiring the same treatment. His use of 
terms is unfortunate, for what he calls asthenia is clearly not what 
is commonly called " going light," though fowls with that dis- 
-ease, as with many others, may become greatly emaciated. His 
renaming of diseases was especially unfortunate in this case, 
because under the topic, "Infectious Leukemia," he gave one of the 
best descriptions of " anemia" I have seen, and the effect of this 
has been largely lost by giving to the disease an unfamiliar name. 
As " leukemia," his disease attracted little attention. Had he pub- 
lished the matter as relating to anemia, and throwing new light 
-on the disease commonly called by that name, it is probable that 
his contribution to the subject would have helped many to a better 
understanding of a trouble. The most important point of differ- 
•ence between the "anemia" of the older authorities, and the 
^'leukemia" described by Salmon, is in the progress of the dis- 
ease. Anemia often drags along for several months, leukemia is 



50ME. DI5E.A5L5 OF THE BLOOD. 99 

said to result generally in death in four or five days, but occasion- 
ally not for two or three weeks. 

For the time the subject is still further complicated by Curtice's 
discussion in a bulletin of the Rhode Island Experiment Station, 
of a disease which appears to be identical with the leukemia of 
Salmon, and which Curtice there calls " fowl typhoid." 

It is possible that these differences of opinion will at sometime 
be harmonized, and a fuller and better understanding of the sub- 
ject brought about. Such superficial comparisons of their argu- 
ments and differences as a non-professional student of the subject 
can make, suggest that further investigation and conference of 
investigators, may show that these differently named diseases are 
either types of the same disease differing in virulence and dura- 
tion, or that conditions which, in most instances, produce the dis- 
ease, of varying duration, commonly known as anemia, may, in 
the presence of certain germs, cause more malignant disturbances. 
It is not unreasonable to suppose that between ordinary "anemia" 
and leukemia and fowl typhoid, (whether these two are the same 
or different), there will be found such relation as has been noted as 
existing between roup and diphtheria, congestion of the lungs and 
pneumonia, and others that might be mentioned. 

With this statement of the confusion of authorities in regard to 
these diseases, and of a possible relation between them, I think the 
reader will get a more satisfactory idea of the subject if I describe 
them in order. 

Anemia. 

Symptoms. — The conspicuous symptoms of anemia are a blood- 
less anemic appearance and great debility and loss of flesh increas- 
ing with the advance of the disease, until the fowl seems to be 
nothing but feathers, skin, and bone. Under any conditions some 
fowls may become anemic, but these cases are so rare as to hardly 
attract notice. More often the fowls in a flock, one or two at a 
time, or possibly more in a large flock, waste away, the num- 
ber affected gradually increasing as the disease is allowed to go 
unchecked. 

Causes. — Lack of fresh pure air and sunshine appear to be the 
principal causes of anemia. Under such conditions the blood does 
not get its required quantity of oxygen, and if the conditions are 



100 THE COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

constant the blood is soon in a condition which compares with 
normal healthy blood, as the color of a plant grown indoors does 
with one grown in the open air. It is no longer good " red blood." 
It is deficient in red blood corpuscles. A very elementary knowl- 
edge of the functions of the blood is all that is necessary to show 
how, when such a condition of the blood is reached, every function 
of the fowl is at once affected, and fails to perform its part. There 
are other causes also. Lack of proper food, or of nourishing food, 
means impoverished, "thin" blood, and many diseases by their 
interference with vital functions cause anemic conditions. 

Treatment. — The treatment of this disease is extremely simple 
from the point of view of the poultryman whose sanitary conditions 
are good, and who has little of it. It is simple in statement for any 
case — but not always easy to put into practice. A great many 
people keep fowls where it is difficult or impossible to secure good 
sanitary conditions. Sometimes they do not realize how far wrong 
the conditions under which their fowls are kept are, and the steps 
they take to correct them, while in the right direction are so far 
short of what is required that they produce little effect. Even with 
fully adequate improvements in sanitation the complete restoration 
of the fowls to health requires time. Tonics help to improve 
digestion and also to enrich the blood. For the latter purpose iron 
is especially useful. Sanborn suggests a teaspoonful of tincture of 
iron and ten drops tincture of nux vomica to the pint of drinking 
water. 

As a matter of general policy it is better to kill birds that are 
conspicuously anemic, and apply the treatment only to those in 
which the disease has not reached an advanced stage. 
Leukemia. 

The name leukemia (white blood) was applied by Moore and 
Salmon to a disease which the former investigated in several locali- 
ties. Its characteristic symptoms are a condition of the blood and 
a general debility such as are found in anemia, from which it differs. 
While it is described by these authorities as a contagious disease 
due to a particular germ, it is admitted that healthy fowls cooped 
with diseased ones did not take the disease, and that " it is not 
improbable that outbreaks may orcur from filth, without the 
necessity of imparting contagion. 



TWO DANGEROUS DISLA5L5. 101 

It differs from anemia, as described above, in that its course is 
more rapid, and it does not readily yield to treatment. The pre- 
ventive and remedial measures recommended are practically the 
same as for anemia. The disease is said to be frequently mistaken 
for fowl cholera. Post mortem examinations made showed altera- 
tions only in the blood and liver, the red corpuscles being greatly 
reduced in number, and the white ones much increased, while the 
liver was somewhat enlarged and dark colored. 

Fowl Typhoid. 

Here again we have " a disease sometimes mistaken for cholera." 
Perhaps a more correct description of the disease and its status 
would be one of the diseases generally supposed to be cholera, for 
to most poultrymen typhoid, in connection with fowls, is an 
unknown term. In fact, as stated by those who described it, the 
disease cannot be identified except by bacteriological methods. 
That being the case, for all practical purposes the typhoid germ in 
fowls may be regarded as one of the germs causing the general 
symptoms popularly known as cholera. The method of dealing 
with it is the same: Kill affected fowls, and disinfect premises, 
and give well fowls treatment as for cholera (page 95). If one is 
curious to know the precise character of such a disease affecting 
his flock, he should try to interest the veterinary department of his 
state agricultural college in it ; but the control of any of these 
epidemic diseases can almost invariably be accomplished within a 
few weeks by disinfection, good sanitation, and correct treatment. 

Black Head of Turkeys. 

This is a contagious disease affecting the liver and intestines, 
(particularly the caecum, or " blind gut"). The disease has been 
most prevalent in eastern and southeastern sections where turkeys 
have long been grown on the same ground, but instances of it as 
epidemic in other sections seem to be on the increase. The disease 
develops no special external symptoms until in an advanced stage. 
Then the peculiar mark of its presence is the dark color of the 
heads of its victims, from which it takes its name " black head." 

Symptoms. — Besides the discoloration of the head indicated 
above, the conspicuous symptoms of this disease is diarrhea, 
resulting from the condition of the intestines, weakness, and 



102 THL COMMON-5EN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

emaciation. A post mortem examination shows the caecum 
inflamed and sometimes clogged with tumorous matter, and the 
liver enlarged and discolored with whitish or yellowish spots. 

Cause. — The disease is caused by a parasite (amoeba melea- 
gridis), which is supposed to be taken into the system with food 
and drink. Salmon says: " The course of the disease is variable. 
In some cases it develops rapidly after infection, and the affected 
birds die in from two to six weeks. In other cases the morbid 
processes may come to a standstill, but the amount of dead tissue 
in the cseca and liver may be so great as to favor the entrance of 
bacteria, which are directly responsible for the death of the bird late 
in the summer or fall. In still other cases regenerative processes 
may begin and lead to complete and permanent recovery. During 
the course of the affection, the parasitic protozoa multiply in the 
cseca, they are mixed with the intestinal contents, and many of 
them are discharged with the excrement. In this way the contagion 
is spread. The food and drinking water become contaminated with 
particles of excrement containing the parasites, the latter are taken 
by healthy birds into the digestive canal, along which they proceed 
until the caeca are reached." 

Treatment. — Medical treatment of blackhead in individuals in 
which it has developed so much as to show the external symptoms 
which identify it is generally ineffective. Such treatment as is 
given has for its object the check of the disease in fowls in which 
it is less developed, building them up with tonics, and giving drugs 
which either destroy the parasites which cause it, or check their 
increase. Whether medicines are used or not, the sick fowls should 
be isolated, and such measures taken for the disinfection of the 
premises as are practicable. 

Where an infected flock has had the range of the farm, or of such 
parts of it as must be used for turkeys distributing contamination 
everywhere, the only disinfection that can be effective is to keep 
infected birds off the land, and let nature destroy the germs of dis- 
ease. While the point has never been experimentally demonstrated, 
it is believed by some of those best informed on the subject that the 
contamination of the land does not continue after the season in 
which infected fowls were on it, and that it is safe the following 
season for turkeys free from the disease. Where there has been 



TRLATMLNT FOR BLACKHEAD. 103 

serious trouble with black head it is advised to clean out the infected 
stock and start new the next season, either with stock from a flock 
free from the disease, or by hatching turkey eggs under hens. A 
comparison of the experiences of different turkey growers with this 
disease suggest the probability that the germs Avhich cause it are 
almost universally distributed, but are virtually harmless unless 
weak stock and unsanitary conditions especially favor their multi- 
plication. Many turkey raisers are emphatic in expressions of 
opinion that black head will give no trouble to those who are careful 
as they should be to use only vigorous breeding stock, and who 
give the turkeys a range large enough to be kept in sanitary condi- 
tion by natural agencies, and are careful to keep the feeding grounds 
and utensils and the roosting places which the turkeys frequent 
near the outbuildings, clean and in wholesome condition. While 
the accounts of outbreaks of blackhead do not fully substantiate this 
view, they do indicate that there is a great deal of truth in it, while 
the stress laid upon sanitary measures of prevention tends to 
strengthen the idea that those who suffer much from the ravages of 
this disease are themselves largely to blame for it. In that section 
of Rhode Island, and contiguous area in Connecticut where the 
growing of turkeys was once an industry of great local importance, 
the decline in the industry is commonly attributed to black head ; 
but there are to be found there persons interested in turkey growing 
who maintain that this view of the case is superficial, that black 
head is a result, not the cause, and that the true cause of the decline 
of the industry is to be found in the changed attitude of the people 
toward the tasks involved in the successful growing of turkeys. 
For medical treatment for mildly affected birds Salmon suggests : — 
Sulphur 5 to lo grains, sulphate of iron i grain, or — 
Benzonapthol i grain, salicylate of bismuth i grain. 
Sulphur lo grains, sulphate of iron i grain, sulphate of 
quinine i grain. 
These remedies are to be given two or three times a day, and con- 
tinued for a considerable time. The doses mentioned are for tur- 
keys weighing four or five pounds each, that being about the weight 
at which most of those which require treatment will have arrived. 
The disease attacks mostly young turkeys, and in these does not 
generally show outward symptoms until the season is well advanced* 



CHAPTER IX. 



Diseases of the Reproductive Organs. 



General Remarks. 

THE diseases of the reproductive organs of fowls do not require 
in a work of this kind the extended discussion given to some of 
the other topics treated. Not that such diseases are not important, 
for they are undoubtedly of very common occurrence, and pro- 
ductive of sterileness in males, and barrenness in female^ thus 
often seriously affecting egg production and the fertility of eggs 
used for hatching. It often appears, too, that disorders of the 
reproductive organs are followed by the development in individ- 
uals of diseases which are readily traced to other causes. In 
such cases it may reasonably be assumed that the fowl was able 
to withstand the causes, whether germ or other causes, of that 
particular disease, until the impairment of its vitality by the disease 
of the reproductive organs. There is also reason to believe that 
in many cases when some of the common causes of cold and 
roup are present under conditions in which it would be expected 
that the fowls would contract severe colds, yet colds do not develop 
in the common form with plain external symptoms, the cold 
*' settles" in the organs of reproduction, causing disorders of 
various kinds which interfere with the operation of those functions 
of fowls which are of first importance to the poultry keeper, even 
when they are not followed by a permanent impairment of the 
organs, or the development of other diseases. 



LITTLE KNOWN OF THL5L DISEASES. 105 

On all such points, however, and to a lesser extent on the entire 
subject of diseases of the reproductive organs of fowls, we have 
little definite knowledge. The subject has been given but little 
attention — not enough to make it clear whether or not results of 
practical value would be likely to come from a thorough investi- 
gation of it. As the situation is today we can deal only with 
those phases of disorders of the reproductive organs of which we 
get unmistakable outward manifestations, such as abnormalities in 
eggs, and obstructed laying — superficial things which, as we find 
them, seem to have no connection whatever with the primary 
reproductive organs. When a post mortem examination of a hen 
shows the ovaries in diseased condition, they may be described 
according to the symptoms as tumorous, or gangrened, or atro- 
phied ; or the organs of the male may be found distorted in form, 
or enlarged, or wasted, and we can describe whatever condition 
exists ; but further than that our authorities have not gone. We 
do not know why and how these conditions develop. Hence we 
can have no definite rules for preventing or avoiding them. We 
cannot even ascertain the existence of troubles of this class with 
any certainty during the life of the fowl, and, practically, the atti- 
tude of the poultrymen toward these diseases — with the exceptions 
noted — is one of suspicion merely. He suspects such troubles 
when he has no other way of accounting for conditions which 
might result from them. After the death of a fowl the existence 
of diseases of this kind is easily ascertained. In isolated cases 
this knowledge has no practical value. It satisfies curiosity, but 
affords no data for dealing with other suspected cases. When 
numerous cases are found in a flock the presumption is that the 
stock has a peculiar tendency to that form of trouble, and the best 
policy is to clean out that stock and start with new stock. 

Diseases of the Reproductive Organs of the Female. 

For the present purpose the reproductive organs of the hen may 
be briefly described as consisting of the ovary, from which the eggs 
originate and the yolk is developed, and the oviduct down which 
the egg passes, the fertilization of the egg and the production of 
the white and the shell being accomplished in the oviduct. A dis- 
eased condition of the ovary may be suspected when a hen of 



106 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

mature age fails to lay at the natural laying season . At other sea- 
sons there may be inactivity of the ovary without disease, but when 
a hen absolutely fails to produce eggs in spring it is reasonable to 
presume that there is an abnormal condition of the ovary. This 
will explain why it is that poultry keepers whose hens are thought 
to be too fat can reduce the fat and yet the hens will not lay — the 
truth probably being that the hens have grown fat because the 
ovaries not being active, there was a surplus of food available for 
fat. Evidently reducing the fat in such cases would not reach the 
root of the trouble. 

Diseased conditions of the oviduct are more specifically indicated 
by outward symptoms. 

Diseases of the Ovary. 

Atrophy of the Ovary. — The ovary fails to develop, or having 
developed, becomes reduced in size and useless. An occasional 
result of this trouble is the development of male characteristics, 
enlargement of the comb, growth of spurs, and the production of 
feathers somewhat resembling those of the male. These cases of 
"hermaphroditism," however, are extremely rare. Many poultry 
keepers have never seen such a fowl, while atrophy of the ovary 
with no external indications of such condition or change occur 
with more or less frequency in every yard. 

Gangrene of the Ovary. — In this disease the ova attached to 
the ovary are found in a state of decomposition, dark colored and 
filled with liquid, in fact the yolks are rotten. This condition will 
ultimately cause the death of the hen, but not nearly all hens in 
this condition die from the disease. A poultry keeper who made it 
a practice to carefully examine the entrails of all hens killed and 
drawn at home, once told me it was surprising how many hens he 
found in some stage of this disease. Salmon advances the opinion 
that it may be an infectious disease. He bases this opinion on the 
frequently observed presence of bacteria in the affected parts. 

Tumor and Cancer of the Ovary. — Tumors of the ovary are 
of frequent occurrence, and vary considerably in character. The 
most common form consists of a tumorous growth about the yolks 
of eggs that for some reason have not entered the oviduct. In most 



COMMON DISEA5LS OF THE OVIDUCT. 107 

observed cases they kill the fowl, and the condition is not discovered 
until examination after death, but occasionally a tumorous egg is 
detached from the ovary and passes out through the oviduct ; and 
from several reports of such cases that have reached me I judge it 
possible for the ovary, relieved of this abnormal growth, to again 
become active and produce perfect eggs. 

Some observed phenomena of egg production indicate that though 
the existence and character of the diseases of the ovary described 
cannot be determined in the life of the fowl, and the diseases can- 
not be intelligently treated, many hens do have ovarian troubles 
and recover from them. 

Diseases of the Oviduct. 

The common diseases of the oviduct are generally accompanied 
by marked external symptoms, especially in their later stages. In 
some of them — as in inflammation of the oviduct, — there may be 
external symptoms early in the progress of disease, but these are 
not characteristic, and afford no special Jclue to the nature of the 
trouble. Indeed the earlier symptoms are so like those of constipa- 
tion that the poultryman who observes them is likely to suppose 
that that or some disease in which constipation may be a conspicu- 
ous symptom is the trouble. Such an error might be to his advan- 
tage if it led to prompt dosing and dieting for constipation, for the 
treatments for these two troubles, while not in every respect identi- 
cal, are so much alike that the treatment for constipation may be 
expected to accomplish most of the results aimed at in treatment for 
inflammation of the oviduct. As may be noted, these diseases 
present parallel features — similar conditions in organs having a 
degree of similarity in structure and functions. The symptoms of 
the other troubles of the oviduct are oi more rapid development, 
and generally unmistakable in character. 

Egg Bound. 

This trouble is rather mechanical and accidental in occurrence. 
It is not properly a disease, but diseased conditions of some part of 
the oviduct may cause it or result from it. It is of such common 
occurrence that poultry keepers generally become acquainted with 
it early in their experience. 



108 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Symptoms. — These vary somewhat in different birds. The most 
common symptoms — frequent visits to the nest without laying; 
walking about with the body almost perpendicular, and the legs 
well spread; and the visible condition of inability to complete the 
extrusion of an egg. The first two symptoms occur in the less 
serious cases, or when the egg though not progressing normally to 
extrusion threatens no immediate danger to the fowl. As everyone 
who has closely observed the habits of hens has noted, the symp- 
toms and condition we are discussing are present in mild form or 
for a very short time in the production of nearly every egg. It is 
only in their extreme development that they need cause the poultry 
keeper concern. The hen that visits the nest often without result 
may yet deposit her egg without injury. The hen that waddles 
about the yard in some distress, but seemingly more in discomfort 
than in pain, may drop the egg anywhere, and in a short time be 
all right again. A hen may halt with an egg half way protruding 
for some minutes, and then succeed in passing it without injury to 
herself. 

Causes. — In my own experience by far the most common causes 
of egg bound are relatively large eggs, and heavy laying, the fre- 
quent straining of the parts inflaming them, rendering them less 
elastic, and thereby making the passage of the egg more difficult. 
Such strains affect the ligaments and muscles of the adjacent parts 
as well as the membrane of the oviduct itself, hence we often see 
lameness and paralysis resulting from trouble in laying. Overfat 
hens are said to be especially liable to trouble in passing eggs, and 
constipation of the bowels increases the danger of trouble in pass- 
ing the egg. 

Treatment. — Unless it appears plain that unless given assist- 
ance the hen either cannot pass the egg or will injure herself in 
passing it, it is best to let her alone. From the economical point 
of view it is better to kill a hen so seriously in trouble from this 
cause as to need assistance, for a hen that has had this trouble once 
is likely to have it again, and in most cases the death of the hen in 
laying is only a question of time. I have known of hens success- 
fully treated for egg bound several times, then die in that condition. 

A hen may be found with an egg partially extruded and unable to 
complete the passage. In that case immerse the vent in warm 



TREATMENT FOR EGG BOUND. 109 

water, or with the fingers and some warm lard or vaseline anoint 
the protruding membrane which surrounds the egg until it relaxes 
enough to allow the passage of the egg. This operation must be 
very gently and carefully performed or it may, by injuring the 
parts, do more harm than good. The process is slow; as much as 
half an hour may be required before it is successful. 

If the egg is lodged within the oviduct just inside the vent, which 
will not distend enough even to allow it to begin the passage 
through, immerse in warm water as described above, or inject a 
little olive oil or salad oil. In different cases a combination of the 
two treatments may be used, immersing first in warm water, then 
injecting oil, and by manipulation with the fingers endeavoring to 
assist the passage of the egg. Eggs are sometimes broken within 
the oviduct. In many such cases the broken egg is passed by the 
fowl without any serious consequences. Sometimes the egg is 
passed, and the fowl after moping around for a few days, dies, 
either from inflammation and gangrene resulting from injury to 
the oviduct by pieces of broken shell, or from injuries resulting 
from the accident by which the egg was broken. The same treat- 
ment used for a whole egg obstructing the oviduct may be applied 
when the egg is broken, but the presence of broken shell adds to 
the risks. In all cases of difficult laying the diet should be light, 
contain little stimulating food, and may have more soft and laxative 
food than is ordinarily advisable. Salmon recommends giving 
fluid extract of ergot in five drop doses three times a day to contract 
the parts unduly expanded and strained. It is to be noted that the 
complete success of an operation cannot be known for several days. 
Many hens which after an operation go about and eat as usual, will 
within a few days develop symptoms which show that in the pro- 
cess or treatment they were internally injured beyond possibility of 
recovery. 

Prolapsus of the Oviduct. 

Symptom and Causes. — Hens are sometimes found with what 
appears to be a red membranous sack protruding from the vent. 
This is usually the lower part of the oviduct, which normally 
would protrude somewhat as the egg was extruded, but would 
either instantly or within a very short time, return to its normal 
position within the body. If it does not do so, it soon becomes 



no THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

dry and cannot return. The same condition sometimes occurs also 
as the result of efforts to expel an egg lodged in the lower part of 
the oviduct. In these latter cases the protrusion is likely to be 
much smaller, though there is no uniformity of symptoms attend- 
ing different developments of the trouble. Sometimes a small 
protrusion at the vent is seen in both females and males. This is 
protrusion of the bowel, similar in cause and character to piles. 

The protruding bowel or oviduct, if not soon replaced, becomes 
very much inflamed ; mortification and the death of the fowl 
follow. 

Treatment. — If there is found to be an egg in the passage, 
treat as for egg bound. If no egg is there, apply vaseline, lard, 
or oil to the protrusion, and by pressure with the fingers work it 
back to its place. See that the parts are clean before being returned. 
If soiled, wash with warm water. Further treatment is the same as 
for inflammation of the oviduct. Ergot, as recommended for cases 
of egg bound, may be given to contract the parts and keep them 
from relapsing. 

Rupture of the Oviduct. 

It often happens that the oviduct, or the vent, is torn in the 
passage of an egg. A slight rupture at the vent may heal very 
quickly without treatment. An internal rupture is likely to have 
more serious consequences. Mortification and gangrene may set 
in, and the fowl die from these, or if the production of eggs con- 
tinues, the rupture may be enlarged until one or more eggs drop 
through its aperture into the abdomen, where they may remain for 
days, or even weeks, and the fowl continue to live, though the 
trouble is incurable, and death from it must finally come. 

Inflammation of the Oviduct. 

Symptoms. — Inflammation of the oviduct may occur either as a 
cause or a result of the various troubles just considered, or it may 
develop from some of the causes which cause them. The diseases 
of the oviduct are so complicated that we cannot readily differ- 
entiate them. Inflammation may appear and disappear without 
any of the extreme results mentioned above being developed. It is 
then indicated chiefly by the production of abnormal eggs, eggs 
I without shells, or with distorted shells. The only other character- 



CAU5L5 OF SOFT 5HLLLLD LGGS. Ill 

istic symptom is a restless going to and from the nest usually with- 
out laying, and this is not an exclusive symptom, but occurs also 
in diseases of the ovary. 

Treatment.— The treatment of a disease like this must always 
be somewhat a matter of guess work. Treatments recommended 
are : — 

A diet free from heating and stimulating foods, quiet, Epsom 
salts 20 grains, bicarbonate of soda, followed with one-half drop 
tincture of aconite, three times a day. — Salmon. 

Teaspoonful of sweet oil every four hours. — Vale. 

Give one-half teaspoonful sulphate of magnesia in a tablespoon- 
ful of water. Keep the bowels open by the use of the magnesia, 
and give plain unstimulating food. — Sanborn. 

Abnormal Eggs. 

The normal egg consists of a yolk, surrounded by albuminous 
matter, the white, both enclosed in a shell, firm in texture, regular 
in outline, and, in the case of an average hen, weighing about an 
ounce and a half to two ounces. Eggs notably larger or smaller 
than the weights indicated are usually in some way abnormal. A 
very large egg is likely to contain two yolks, a very small one none. 
Irregularly shaped shells, and notably rough or porous shells, are 
commonly attributed to some lack of full functional activity of the 
oviduct, but we have very little specific knowledge of the subject. 
Some hens never lay an egg perfect in form and shell ; some lay 
imperfect eggs when out of condition in various ways, but perfect 
eggs when in perfect condition. The thickness and texture of the 
shell depend generally on an abundance of shell forming material 
being available, but there are many hens that lay eggs with poor 
shells though liberally supplied with mineral matters supposed to 
be beneficial in such cases. In that event we are forced to assume 
a derangement of function which inferferes with the proper utiliza- 
tion of available material. 

Soft Shelled Eggs — May result from inflammation of the 
oviduct, or from any condition of the oviduct which interferes with 
the normal deposit of shell on the egg as it passes through ; from 
fright (causing an abortion); from weakness (making the fowl 
unable to retain the accumulating eggs in the oviduct until those 



112 THE. COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

most advanced are completely developed) ; from an excessive rate of 
egg production, the eggs being separated from the ovary and forced 
through the oviduct more rapidly than is consistent with full forma- 
tion, or beyond the normal ability of the fowl to carry eggs in pro- 
cess of development. The remedy consists in applying one or 
more treatments, as in the judgment of the poultry keeper there 
seems reason to suppose they may be effective. It may be neces- 
sary to give more shell forming material, or to avoid stimulating 
food, or to separate the hen from the male, or to do all of these 
things. 

Bloody Eggs. — A clot of blood found within the egg generally 
indicates the rupture of a small blood vessel of the ovary. The 
occasional occurrence of such clots need cause no concern. If they 
are of frequent occurrence, and especially if they are laid regularly 
by one or more hens, it is well to locate those hens and kill them 
for the table. Such hens should not be used for breeding purposes. 
There is much reason to suppose that all affections of the repro- 
ductive organs are transmitted to the progeny with probably greater 
regularity than any other class of diseases or faults. 

A little blood on the shell of an egg indicates a tear or rupture of 
the oviduct or vent, and is serious in proportion to the amount 
of blood noted, and the frequency of the occurrence. A pullet's 
first egg, unless very small, is likely to have some blood on the 
shell. 

Diseases of the Male Organs of Reproduction. 

Very little attention has been given by authorities on poultry ail- 
ments to diseases affecting these organs, and practically no atten- 
tion by poultrymen. It is not possible to identify any of them 
during the life of the fowl, there being no characteristic external 
symptoms. As far as observed these diseases affect only the testi- 
cles. Examinations have shown enlargement, fatty degeneration, 
and cancer of the testicles. Such conditions may be suspected in 
case of a male which proves infertile, but no specific treatment is 
possible. It is likely that other parts of the reproductive organs of 
the male also have their peculiar diseases, but no special study of 
them has been made, if we except the next described trouble, which 
affects both males and females. 



CLOACITI5, OR VENT GLLLT. 113 

Vent Gleet. 

This is a venereal disease of fowls, affecting both sexes, con- 
tagious in character, and transmitted from fowl to fowl in copula- 
tion. 

Symptoms. — Contraction and redness of the vent and adjacent 
skin, both of the bowel and of the surface, with a whitish yellow^ 
discharge from the vent. 

Treatment. — •• Wet a piece of cotton in a solution of ten grains 
sulpho carbolate of zinc, and five drops oil of wintergreen to one 
gill of vater, and insert at the vent night and morning; or give as 
an injection five grains sulphate of zinc in one-half pint of water. 
Even with the best of treatment the disease will run a course of ten 
days." — Sanborn. 



CHAPTER X. 



Diseases of the Skin. 



UNDER this head, for the purposes of this work are grouped 
the diseases of the skin of head and appurtenances, body, 
legs, and feet. Technically this grouping might be criticised as in 
violation of both scientific method and natural system, but there is 
a reason for considering these diseases together, and also for not 
considering, as some authorities do, lice and the blood sucking 
mites in connection with skin diseases caused by less active and 
less readily identified parasites. 

The common diseases of the comb, skin, and feet may all be 
regarded as diseases of the skin. Some of the worst skin diseases 
affect both the comb and the skin of the head, neck, and body. 
The diseases of the legs and feet which cause poultrymen most 
trouble are diseases of the skin of those parts. ! 

The diseases treated together here are mostly contagious, but 
slow in development, and not difficult to cure if taken in time, or 
to eradicate if persistently followed up. In so far as they are par- 
asitic there is this essential difference between the treatment of 
them and of lice and red mites — that treatment must be by local 
applications to the affected parts, while with lice and red mites we 
treat most easily and effectively without handling the fowls, and 
without giving them either individually or collectively any specific 
treatment. 



MOST COMMON SKIN DISLASLS. 1 15 

The skin diseases of most common occurrence are chicken pox — 
affecting the head ; white comb, or favus — beginning usually on 
the comb, and often confined to the head, yet frequently extending 
to all parts of the body ; scabies or mange — affecting first and prin- 
cipally the skin of the body, and destroying both cuticle and feath- 
ers, but often extending to the bare skin of the head; scaly leg — 
affecting the skin of the shank and foot ; and bumble foot, a dis- 
eased condition of the skin of the sole of the foot. With the 
exception of the last named they are contagious. 

Chicken Pox. 

This disease, while quite common in the northern United States, 
is there considered a mild disease. Through the south, and in 
Hawaii it is far more prevalent, and apparently more virulent. In 
north temperate latitudes little is heard of it except in the fall, 
especially in a cold wet fall. From warmer regions complaints of 
*' sore head," as it is popularly called when it is most troublesome, 
come at all seasons. 

Symptoms. — Small ulcers or pimples on the face, about the eyes 
and beak mostly, but sometimes spreading, running together and 
making a large sore with thick scab. Should one fail to notice the 
eruptions in the early stages he may not suspect the true char- 
acter of the disease while only one or two fowls are affected, for 
when the scabs turn dark they may look like scabs from injuries in 
fighting. 

Cause. — Salmon (in "Diseases of Poultry") goes into the 
details of the investigation of this disease, and concludes that it is 
caused by fungi, which multiply especially in accumulations of 
damp excrement of fowls, but may develop in ordinarily clean 
quarters under a combination of favorable conditions. Dull damp 
weather particularly favors the development of chicken pox, hence 
a cloudy and wet period in late summer and early fall is likely to 
bring numerous epidemics of chicken pox. 

Treatment. — In the single outbreak of this disease, which I had 
in my own yards — in two broods of late chicks — after applying 
carbolated vaseline to the sores on the heads of the hen and brood 
first affected, I changed both lots to dryer quarters, and let the dis- 
ease takes its course. Both hens had very bad cases, yet, except for 



116 THE COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

looks neither seemed at all the worse for the disease. Thej ate 
and foraged about contentedly, and the molt which thej were 
then undergoing seemed not at all retarded. The smaller and 
weaker chicks, without exception, took the disease, and either died 
from it, or were so exhausted by it that when the disease had run 
its course I killed them as worthless. Large strong chicks either 
did not take it at all, or the attack was very light. Some poultry- 
men paint the ulcers with tincture of iodine, or with tincture of 
iodine mixed with ten per cent of carbolic acid. Salmon, while 
mentioning this remedy, advises its use only when milder remedies 
have failed. Instead of the carbolated vaseline, glycerine with two 
per cent of carbolic acid may be used. It is recommended to give 
these treatments twice daily, but if from lack of opportunity, or 
because of the number of birds to be treated, this is impracticable, 
less frequent treatments may be given. 

White Comb— Favus. 

This is a disease which, in this country, is comparatively rare, 
though from the discussion of it by European writers it seems to be 
very common in the cities of England and on the continent. It is 
said to affect human beings and animals as well as fowls, and per- 
haps its prevalence among poultry in Europe may be due to its 
prevalence among persons or animals coming in contact with the 
fowls. It is a disease of a class much more common among 
people in the old countries than here. It is known as favus when 
it affects people. Some authorities treat it as a distinct contagious 
disease ; others consider it a condition due to anemia. It is pos- 
sible that the disease develops originally in anemic poultry, and 
that the surroundings which produce anemic poultry are favorable 
to the beginning as the condition of such poultry is to the growth 
of the disease. But when the disease is once established, and the 
symptom which gives it its common name becomes conspicuous 
and shows a serious disorder, it is highly contagious. The fact 
that writers treating " white comb " frequently confuse this and the 
more common disease which goes by the same popular name, gives 
rise to some uncertainty as to whether they are really different dis- 
eases or different stages or developments of the same disease. 

Symptoms. — The description of symptoms of yax-i/^ or '• white 



FAVU5— DESCRIPTION AND CAU5L. 1 17 

comb," given by Salmon, is far the most satisfactory I have ever 
seen. He says : " The disease manifests itself by small white or 
light gray round or irregular spots, from the size of a pinhead to 
that of a dime, that extend and increase in number, until nearly all 
of the skin of the affected part is covered. An examination of 
these spots shows that a thin scale or crust has formed on the sur- 
face of the skin. The crust often develops in round or crescentric 
deposits, raised at the border and depressed at the center, giving to 
the spots a cup shaped appearance. The crust increases in thick- 
ness until in the course of a month it may be one-fourth inch or 
more in depth. It is then of a dirty white color, scaly and irregu- 
lar on the surface. When the crust is removed the skin is seen to 
be irritated and slightly excoriated. The disease extends from the 
bare parts of the head to the parts of the body covered with feath- 
ers. The neck, the region about the vent, and the adjoining sur- 
faces are then invaded. The feathers become dry, erect, and 
brittle. They break and fall off, leaving the skin denuded ajnd 
covered with crusts, which are often cup shaped, having in the 
center the depression in which the feather was fixed." 

Cause. — This disease is caused by a fungus. It is said that this 
fungus cannot establish itself on a sound skin, but takes effect only 
when there is a break, a scratch, or abrasion of the skin with which 
it comes in contact. Once established it seems to spread steadily, 
even under good sanitary conditions, unless measures are taken to 
check it. 

Treatment. — In its early stages favus yields readily to treat- 
ment. The difficulty in treating it is, that because at first it does 
not seem to be serious, and does not much affect the general con- 
dition of the fowl, the poultry keeper pays little attention to it, until 
the stage when treatment would be easy has passed. Such simple 
remedies as cocoanut oil, lard, vaseline, seem to be effective when 
applied before the crusts become thick. After that condition is 
reached, however, it is necessary to remove the crusts before mak- 
ing applications. Otherwise the ointments applied do not pene- 
trate readily to the skin where the growth is attached. The crusts 
may be removed by rubbing with a blunt edged knife, the edge of a 
spoon handle, or a small piece of wood whittled to an edge. The 
process is slow and tedious, and except in case of a very valuable 



118 THL COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

bird not worth while. After removing the crusts applications ol 
ointment should be made daily until all evidences of disease disap- 
pear. Numerous different articles and mixtures have been recom- 
mended. 

Hill prescribes oxide of zinc and vaseline. 

Sanborn, oleate of zinc one heaping teaspoonful to one-half cup 
of vaseline. 

Salmon mentions a number of remedies : 

Tincture of iodine. 

Benzine i part, in soft soap 20 parts. 

Carbolic acid i part, in soft soap 20 parts. 

Calomel, or red oxide of mercury i part, in vaseline 8 parts. 

The foregoing are relatively mild remedies. Where they fail and 
it is still desired to effect a cure if possible, he suggests : — 

Nitrate of silver 3 grains, with one-half ounce of vaseline. 

Or, as a last resort : — Corrosive sublimate 10 grains, in an ounce 
of water. 

White Comb — *«Scurf." 

This trouble Vale describes as "a fine white scurf on the comb like 
a white powder. This is composed of minute scales of the scarf- 
skin detached from the comb, which is usually pale and flabby." 
It is said to require no medicinal treatment. It is considered a 
result of anemia, and to disappear with corrected diet and more 
sanitary surroundings. 

Scabies. 

This is a disease, which being produced by a mite, ought from 
some considerations to be treated in the chapter on external para- 
sites. The effects of attacks of this mite, known as Sarcoftes Icevis, 
or "the depluming scab mite," however, produce a diseased condi- 
tion of the skin and a loss of feathers, while the tenacious character 
of the parasite makes it necessary to treat fowls individually, by 
repeated local applications. Also, many cases are reported where 
from the descriptions given it is hard to distinguish between scabies 
and favus appearing first upon the body of the fowl. 

Scaly Leg. 

This is one of the most unsightly and troublesome diseases of 
the poultry yard. Yards that have been used for years are rarely 



SYMPTOMS AND CAUSL OF SCALY LLC. 119 

free from it, and it almost always makes an early appearance on 
new premises that are heavily stocked or where care is not taken to 
keep it out. In its early stages it does not perceptibly affect the 
health or general condition of the fowls ; but if allowed to develop 
it debilitates and often cripples them. 

Symptoms. — The scales of the feet and shanks become raised and 
loosened by the accumulation of a crusty substance beneath and 
between them. The symptoms are usually first observed at the 
junction of the shank and toes, and even before the crusty deposit 
has conspicuously loosened the scales and given it a rough appear- 
ance a thickening and enlarging of the part may be observed. As 
the disease extends the foot and toes and the whole shank become 
affected, the roughness being greatest on the foot and at the hock 
joint. In very bad cases toes are sometimes lost, the joints being 
destroyed. 

Cause. — Scaly leg is caused by a mitt ( sarcoftes tnutans), which 
burrows beneath the scales of the feet and legs. The cause is 
sometimes said to be deficiency of oil in the skin of the parts 
affected ; but this is only the condition favorable for the attacks of 
the parasite. Fowls running in large grassy yards, or on moist 
land, or about stables where they scratch in manure heaps, are 
rarely affected with scaly leg unless it was contracted under other 
conditions, or the roosting places are allowed to become very foul. 
Fowls on very dry bare land, especially on alkali soils and in small 
yards filled with ashes or cinders, are most often affected, and 
under these conditions the poultry keeper must constantly war 
against the disease either in treatment of fowls or by special pre- 
cautions against it. Where conditions are unfavorable to the 
workings of the parasite, scaly leg is avoided by carefully exclud- 
ing all fowls having plainly developed cases of it from the prem- 
ises. Some fowls seem immune to the attacks of the parasite, even 
when associated with fowls badly affected. These immune fowls 
are usually exceptionally vigorous, with an abundance of oil in 
skin and feathers. 

Treatment. — The treatment of even mild cases of scaly leg 
must always be individual and local. The mites that cause the 



120 THL COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

trouble work and remain under the surface, and can be reached 
onlj by treatment with oils or ointments that are very penetrating 
or well rubbed in. For mild cases the easiest way to treat is by 
'dipping the feet and legs to the hocks in a mixture of coal oil and 
linseed oil, the proportions of which may be varied according to 
the number of treatments to be given and the rapidity with which 
it is desired to make the cure complete. The larger the proportion 
-of coal oil the more effective is the mixture, the coal oil being the 
energetic agent in detaching the scurf and dead scales, while the 
linseed oil allays the irritation. If the coal oil works too energet- 
ically scales and scurf may fall off before the new sound skin, which 
begins to form at once when the mites are checked, is developed, 
and the exposed parts will be left red and raw, this skin perhaps 
sloughing off, and another forming under it. This rapid treatment 
is to be advised only for emergencies, as when it is found that a 
bird which is to be exhibited must be treated for this trouble and 
ready to show in a very short time. 

Except in hurry cases use not more than half coal oil, while for 
cases so little developed that the treatment is as much preventive as 
active, one part coal oil to two parts linseed oil is to be preferred. 

When the scales though loosened still retain very nearly their 
normal position and the accumulation of crust is small, it is suffi- 
cient to dip the feet and legs in the oil mixture, hold them there a 
few seconds, then after holding the fowl over the vessel containing 
the oil to drip for a few seconds, replace it on the roost — the work 
being done as the fowls are on the roost in the evening. This 
treatment repeated at intervals of a week, is usually all that is nec- 
essary for such cases. 

When the scales are badly damaged and the accumulation of 
scurf is large, treatment must begin with the removal of the scurf 
and loose scales. Sometimes this can be done gradually, by brush- 
ing with a stiff nail brush, doing this before each application of 
oil, as the entire accumulation cannot be removed at one treatment 
in this way without severity to the fowl. In such cases treatments 
should be given at intervals of two or three days, until the parts are 
in normal condition. 



TRLATMLNT OF SCALY LEG. 121 

Salmon advises soaking the legs in warm water to which some 
soap has been added, until the debris on them is thoroughly soft- 
ened and may be removed without causing bleeding; or coating 
the legs with soft soap, leaving them for twelve to twentj-four 
hours, and then soaking in warm Avater, and removing the scales 
by rubbing gently ; and when the scales are thus removed apply 
daily, Helmerich's ointment, creolin ointment (i to lo), carbolic 
ointment ( i to lo), or balsam of Peru. The objection to this 
treatment is the time required to soften and remove the scales. 
Another possible objection is that when the scales are removed 
rapidly the new skin and scales are not likely to be be as good as 
when the removal and restoration proceed simultaneously and 
leisurely. I mention this as only a possible objection, because that 
result may not be as general as my own experience and observation 
lead me to suppose. I have preferred the coal oil-linseed oil treat- 
ment, because the coal oil works to remove dead matter for a long 
time after application, while the soaking process requires the poul- 
tryman to hold the fowl in the water for so long a period that only 
a few fowls could be treated in a day. 

Other treatments recommended are : — 

" A tin quart measure nearly full of water, with one tablespoon- 
ful of kerosene oil floating on top, and tied or fastened to a box to 
hold it firm. Then dip the legs (both at the same time) into the 
oil, holding them there one minute. Repeat after three days." 
— Salmon. 

" Rub the parts daily with equal parts of vaseline and zinc oint- 
ment ; or, in severe cases, with one ounce of sulphur, half an ounce 
of oxide of zinc, one dram of oil of tar, and two ounces of whale 
oil mixed together. Apply daily." — Hill. 

General Preventive Treatment. — Absolute exclusion of 
this disease from a flock of poultry is perhaps impossible. The 
mites are probably everywhere present in small numbers, but do 
no serious damage until conditions favorable to them allow them to 
increase to the point of becoming troublesome. In many stocks of 
poultry are birds somewhat affected, occasionally quite badly 
affected, which it does not seem worth while to treat, but which it 
is desirable to keep for a time as breeders or layers. There is no 



122 THE COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

serious objection to this provided the circumstance is not a regular 
annual occurrence. It should never happen after the first season 
that the poultry keeper has realized that the trouble is in his flock 
and must be eliminated. 

A poultrjman having come to this conclusion may practically 
get rid of the disease in a single season by proceeding in this way : 
Give all fowls several treatments by dipping. This will cure the 
mild cases and check the more advanced ones. After the first 
series of dippings dip the legs of all fowls in pens containing cases 
evidently not cured once a month until the breeding season is over, 
and the time has arrived to dispose of laying hens not to be kept 
another season. Then either sell or cure by special treatment every 
hen showing symptoms of scaly leg. If chicks are hatched ana 
reared with hens avoid as far as possible the use of scaly legged 
hens in incubation, and on no account use as a mother a hen show- 
ing any symptoms of the disease. By following this course the 
disease is entirely stamped out in one season with much less effort 
than if an attempt had been made to cure every case. Having once 
got rid of it carefully examine for it every new fowl purchased, and 
either reject or isolate and cure affected fowls before allowing them 
to mix with others. 

Some authorities suggest a very thorough cleaning and disinfec- 
tion of premises, but that is not necessary unless conditions are 
very bad. When fowls must be kept on ground which absorbs the 
oil of the skin of feet and legs, rendering the fowls especially liable 
to this disease, it can be largely prevented by dipping the legs of all 
fowls occasionally in the coal oil-linseed oil mixture. It is good 
policy also to feed such fowls more liberally on fat forming foods, 
because lack of oil in the skin usually means lack of oil in the 
plumage, making the feathers more brittle and to some extent "tak- 
ing the life out of them." 

Bumblefoot. 

Symptoms. — Hardening of the skin of the sole of the foot, in 
neglected aggravated cases developing an abscess, making the use 
of the foot painful, and sometimes impossible. 

Causes. — This trouble is usually associated with high perches 
and hard board floors or floors containing gravel or cinders large 



CAU5LS OF BUMBLLFOOT. 123 

enough to bruise the foot as the fowl alights in jumping from the 
perch. While this is the usual cause other causes are given. 
Salmon says corns which may develop into bumblefoot are caused 
by roosts being too small or narrow. Vale declares that in numer- 
ous cases examined by him constitutional disease was the predis- 
posing cause. Sanborn says he has found it in chicks that had 
never been on a perch, and though he suspected it might be due to 
a splinter or thorn, had never found any foreign substance but glass. 

Treatment. — Unless there is occasion to handle fowls and 
observe the condition of the feet, bumblefoot is not often discov- 
ered until the lameness of the fowl leads to an examination. By 
that time there is usually a large abscess formed. 

If the condition is discovered before an abscess forms, treatment 
may be by paring the hardened skin, like a corn, -then touching 
with a drop of acetic acid daily, or painting with tincture of iodine, 
or applying boric acid ointment (i part boric acid, 5 parts 
vaseline). 

If an abscess has formed use one of the following : 

" Open the abscess with a clean, slender knife, wash out all the 
matter with warm water containing carbolic acid, then apply nitrate 
of silver — ten grains to one ounce of distilled water. Keep the 
bird on clean straw three or four days." — Salmon. 

" Soak the feet in warm water twice a day, and poultice until the 
inflammation is reduced. If an abscess in the sole is indicated by 
a soft, fluctuating swelling of the part, it should be opened with a 
sharp knife. After the poulticing is completed, apply boric acid 
ointment and protect the feet with pieces of cotton cloth. If the 
joints have become affected, and particularly if these communicate 
with the pus channels and are a seat of suppuration^ the bird should 
be killed." — Salmon. 

English authorities advise a treatment more difficult for the 
amateur in fowl surgery : 

"When ulceration occurs it is advisable to carefully dissect out 
the growth, apply nitrate of silver, and be careful to prevent dirt 
or irritating matter getting into the wound. An occasional poul- 
tice is serviceable, and also the application of carbolic acid. To 
prevent the bird pecking the poultice it is sometimes necessary to 



124 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

fasten the limbs together, and leave the patient in a recumbent 
position until it is removed and the dressing applied." — Hill. 

"In bad cases the only chance of affecting a cure is by dissecting 
out the growth. When doing this apply a ligature to the leg, just 
above the foot; that is, bind it tightly to prevent excessive loss of 
blood, then carefully cut through the skin all around the part 
requiring removal, leaving all the sound skin to close over the 
■wound. Next dissect out as much of the affected part as can be 
removed without injuring the tendons or large blood vessels. 
Wash the wound by pouring upon it a stream of clean water, and 
then close it with a few single stitches. Apply a wet pad, and keep 
it in place with a bandage." — Vale. 



CHAPTER XI 



Miscellaneous Ailments. 



IN this chapter are discussed a number of the minor and occa- 
sional troubles of poultry which it seemed inappropriate or 
inadvisable to include in any of the foregoing chapters. Some of 
them are of quite frequent occurrence, and under some conditions 
maj become serious, but as a rule none of these are dangerous. 
Some cause sudden deaths. These generally appear only at long 
intervals or under extreme conditions. In the latter instance a 
number of fowls may be affected at once, giving the trouble an 
appearance of epidemic, which alarms the poultry keeper if he has 
not correctly diagnosed the situation. Heat apoplexy is perhaps 
the most common trouble of this class. 

There are many cases of occasional disorder which are unavoid- 
able under the conditions in which fowls are kept. The larger 
domestic animals may be given such special individual treatment 
in feeding and care as their individual welfare seems to require, but 
fowls to be handled profitably must usually be kept in large flocks, 
though a poultry keeper with a very large stock of fowls may 
sort them over, and putting fowls of like disposition and tendencies 
together, and varying treatment of different flocks avoid largely the 
troubles of this nature ; but on the whole profitable poultry keeping 
requires uniformity of method in handling the stock; and sorting 
and special treatment can profitably be followed only to a limited 
extent. 



126 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

In the natural course of events those fowls which cannot adapt 
themselves to the conditions satisfactory for the major part of the 
flock, are eliminated, either by sale as unsatisfactory, or by disease. 
A poultryman who is alert to the situation and its requirements 
works off through appropriate channels all unthrifty fowls, and 
thus avoids heavy losses. One of less experience or judgment 
often tries to hold and improve the unthrifty specimens, thinking 
that by special care and feeding he can make them fit to market, or 
for layers or even breeding stock. Where this policy is followed, 
occasional losses, aggregating sometimes a very large percentage 
in the course of the season, are common. The remedy is to be 
found in a reversal of the attitude of the poultryman toward the 
weaklings in his stock. 

Abscesses. 

The most common occurrence of this trouble is in severe cases 
of bumblefoot, which was discussed in the preceding chapter. 
Occasionally abscesses result from injuries, and at rare intervals 
cases occur of sores like abscesses or boils on various parts of the 
body of the fowl. In my own experience I have had but one 
instance of this, several fowls being affected. These fowls were 
killed, and no further cases developed. Similar cases have been 
reported to me by a few correspondents — not more than two or three 
in the last ten years. The cause of this trouble is probably to be 
found in the condition of the blood of the fowl. Treatment is not 
advisable. 

Apoplexy. 

Symptoms. — Sudden death, or paralysis. 

Causes. — Apoplexy is caused by a rupture of the blood vessels 
of the brain, which may result from various conditions. Extremely 
nervous fowls and fat heavy fowls are most liable to it. Fright is 
the most common immediate cause of the trouble in fowls of the 
Leghorn type, which often die in the hand when caught under con- 
ditions which excite and alarm them. Heavier fowls and old fowls 
are more likely to have it as a result of over exertion, violent exer- 
cise, or a strain, as in laying. Extreme warm weather, particularly 
if it comes suddenly, is apt to cause heat prostrations among large 
heavy fowls. 



PRLVLNTING HLAT PROSTRATIONS. 127 

Treatment. — As is apparent from a statement of the causes of 
this trouble, treatment can rarely be given with any expectation of 
a recovery. Perhaps the only cases w^hich can be treated success- 
fully are mild cases of heat prostration, if found and treated imme- 
diately. In such cases the application of cold water to the head 
may revive the fowl, and if put in a cool quiet place it may be quite 
itself again in a short time. Most cases of heat prostration, how- 
ever, are fatal, either because the condition of the fowl which 
favored the development of the trouble is unfavorable to restoration, 
or because the case is not discovered in time. The disease is, as 
far as possible, prevented by keeping fowls in good physical con- 
dition, by affording them suitable protection from heat, and by 
avoiding rough methods and sudden motions in handling them. 
Appetite — Abnormal. 

Symptoms. — Besides the ordinary variations of appetite insep- 
arable from heavy feeding, which we must accept as a usual occa- 
sional condition, and that by compelling the fowls to fast periodi- 
cally, extreme instances of abnormal appetite sometimes occur. 
Fowls will acquire the habit of eating non-nutritious or injurious 
substances, or of taking excessive quantities of substances like shell 
or grit. 

Causes. — The causes of these eccentricities of appetite may be 
found either in the condition of the fowl or in the repression of its 
natural activities. The disorder may be an accompaniment of 
digestive disturbances, or it may develop simply as a habit, the 
fowls being confined too closely, and having for the greater part of 
the time nothing to do. 

Treatment. — Treatment in such cases should first prevent as 
far as possible the indulgence of a depraved appetite. Where^ fowls 
eat excessive quantities of grit, instead of keeping the supply up 
and allowing them to indulge freely, the grit should betaken away, 
and the fowls fed a diet which will tend to restore the digestive 
organs to normal conditions. If symptoms can be discovered 
which will identify any particular disease, treatment for that dis- 
ease should be given. Generally speaking, an unnatural appetite 
indicates something wrong in feeding or handling the fowls, and 
one of the first steps in dealing with it should be to seek to dis- 
cover what is primarily responsible for it. 



128 THE COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Break Down. 

Symptoms. — Break down, often also called " break down 
behind," probably to distinguish it from "break down in front,'* 
which would be a not inappropriate description of some cases of 
slack crop, is a very common trouble in the hens of the heavier 
breeds, especially in old hens that have been heavy layers. Two 
general forms of it appear. In the most common and permanent 
form the abdomen has become so enlarged and distended that it 
drags upon the ground, or the fowl has become so weakened that 
it cannot maintain the body in its natural position. The two 
causes frequently combine. In this form the body simply seems to 
settle down. In the other form the posterior part of the body is 
depressed, and the anterior parts elevated, and the legs spread until 
the hen waddles like a duck. 

Causes. — The causes of the first form of break down mentioned 
have been partly indicated in the statement of symptoms. In this 
form a strain in laying is also a cause, and it is so far as I have 
observed the sole direct cause of those cases in which the body 
assumes a nearly upright position. The cases of the latter class 
are usually of temporary duration at first, though after several repe- 
titions the trouble may become permanent. Both forms of this 
trouble are to a large degree due to constitutional tendencies. They 
are aggravated b_v the presence and services of the male. 

Treatment. — If the hen is not worth curing she should be 
killed. Ordinarily such a hen, unless clearly suffering, may be 
sold or used for food. If the hen seems worth a cure separate her 
from the flock. If possible give her a grass run and a hard grain 
diet. On no account allow a male bird with her. The general 
preventive treatment for this trouble is to vigorously exclude from 
the breeding pens all hens which have it, and also males from 
stocks having a tendency to it. 

Constipation. 

Occurrence and Symptoms. — Except as it may occur in con- 
nection with diseases as mentioned on page 30, or following an 
attack of diarrhea, constipation in adult fowls is extremely rare. 
In chicks, and especially in brooder chicks it is more common. 
The symptoms are difficult and painful evacuations of the bowels, 



TREATMENT FOR CONSTIPATION. 129 

and in worst cases failure to make evacuations. In joung chick- 
ens efforts to evacuate are frequently accompanied bv a peculiar 
cry made by the chick under no other circumstances, and therefore 
to the poultry keeper familiar with it an unerring warning of a 
condition which without it might easily escape notice for some 
time. 

Causes. — The usual causes of constipation in adult fowls are 
indicated in the preceding paragraph. A not infrequent cause is 
the obstruction of the vent by accumulations of excrement on the 
feathers about it. This is especially apt to occur following loose- 
ness of the bowels in fowls which do not roost. Intestinal worm.s 
also may cause constipation by accumulating until their mass 
blocks the passage. Constipation in chicks is mostly due to 
crowding, lack of exercise, lack of green food, and sometimes to 
too concentrated foods, though usually these have the reverse effect. 

Treatment. — For young chicks treatment is nearly always in 
the line of correcting conditions, feeding soft mashes, and plenty 
of green food. As a rule it is not worth while to try to give 
individual treatment to chicks which do not respond to such gen- 
eral treatment. Adult fowls having constipation without obstruc- 
tion of the intestines, that is merely difficult movements, should 
not require any treatment further than in correcting conditions and 
diet. When the passage is obstructed the treatment is according to 
the location of the obstruction. If it is at the vent with hard accu- 
mulation about the vent as well as in the intestine, the external 
accumulation must be removed first. This is accomplished by 
soaking in warm water, which loosens the attachment of the mass 
to the skin, and separates it enough to allow clipping the feathers- 
about the vent to which the mass adheres. If the obstruction has 
filled the lower part of the intestine, there must be more soaking 
with warm water or softening with olive or sweet oil. Oil is applied 
between the accumulated excrement and the skin by using a small 
syringe or an oil can with very small nozzle. The process is a 
tedious one, and where the poultryman's time is valuable is unprof- 
itable except in cases of valuable birds. Following the administra- 
tion of oil it may be necessary to wait some hours for the mass to 
become soft enough to discharge, and even to remove it bit by bit 
with a spoon handle or small blunt piece of wood of similar form. 



130 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

When the obstruction cannot be reached in this way purgatives 
must be given. Those usually recommended for fovi^ls, are castor 
oil, epsom salts, and calomel. If none of these is at hand any- 
purgative or laxative used in the household may be given, the dose 
for a fowl being about the same as for a two year old child. In 
applying according to this rule it is safe, and more sure of results, 
to err on the side of a larger rather than a smaller dose than would 
be given a child of the age designated. Of castor oil the usual dose 
for a fowl is one to two teaspoonfuls ; of epsom salts, twenty to 
thirty grains are given in a teaspoonfulof water. Calomel is given 
in one or two grain doses, made into pills with lard or butter. 

When worms are suspected give one of the remedies mentioned 
in the chapter on internal parasites. 

Cramp. 

Under this head different authorities discuss different symptoms. 
Sanborn describes cramp as a trouble of chicks due to crowding, 
overheating, and lack of exercise. Salmon does not specifically 
refer to it. Vale limits it to distortion of the feet, due to contrac- 
tion of the muscles, and attributes it mostly to improper manage- 
ment. Hill seems to apply it only to contractions of the muscles 
of locomotion ; but by poultrymen generally the term is applied to 
a greater variety of troubles. One of the most common uses is to 
describe colicky spasms which frequently are the only noticeable 
symptoms in acute intestinal disorders, which cause many sudden 
deaths of young chicks. Considering the broad suggestiveness of 
the term and the lack of unanimity in applying it in diseases of 
poultry, it seems to me inadvisable to attempt to treat it as a 
separate disorder. At the same time the extent to which the term 
is commonly used makes special reference to it necessary. The 
reader observing what might be called a case of cramp, should con- 
sider it as a symptom, and endeavor through reference to Chap- 
ter IV. to identify the trouble back of it. 

Dropsy. 

An abnormal collection of fluid in cavities or tissues of the body 
often results from injuries, or develops with the advanced stages of 
various diseases. This is called dropsy, and our authorities on 
poultry diseases generally name as many forms of the disease as 
there are parts of the body conspicuously affected by it. 



VARIOUS FORM5 OF DROP5Y. 131 

Dropsy of the Abdomen. — This is the most commonly observed 
form of dropsy. The distinguishing symptom is great distention 
of the abdomen, which on examination is found to be filled with 
fluid, and soft and fluctuating to the touch. The abdomen may 
be distended from other causes ; as accumulation of fat among the 
intestines, in which case it is firm and hard to the touch. An egg 
falling into the abdominal cavity causes distention. Its presence 
there is easily ascertained on examination, and if the egg has 
remained in the abdominal cavity for some time dropsy will have 
developed. 

Abdominal dropsy develops in protracted chronic cases of dis- 
ease of any of the organs or tissues in the abdominal cavity, also 
from injuries to the abdomen from external causes. Treatment is 
so rarely effective that poultrymen may well regard it as incurable. 
Indeed, it may appropriately be considered a symptom indicating 
that his treatment for the things from which it results has been 
ineffective, or was delayed too long. 

Dropsy of the Heart. — Is possibly of as frequent occurrence as 
abdominal dropsy, but having no special external symptoms, can- 
not be identified until after death. It occurs with the various forms 
of heart trouble, none of which can be accurately identified or suc- 
cessfully treated. 

Dropsy of the Wattles. — The wattles of fowls often become 
enlarged and distended with fluid either as a result of an injury, 
frost bite, or perhaps as a result of the general condition of the 
fowl. Anaemic fowls are said to develop dropsy as a result of this 
condition, and though our information on the subject is meagre, 
it appears that when the cause is general the development of dropsy 
is not limited to any special locality, but may appear in any one or 
more of those sections affected by it. In dropsy of the wattles 
caused by blood disorders, the wattles may be suffused with blood 
and dark purple in color. 

This form of dropsy is often successfully treated. The wattle 
should be opened at the extreme lower part with a lance, and the 
liquid in it carefully removed. It should then be syringed with 
warm water, and the bird kept on clean straw that no dirt may get 
into the wound before it has healed. It may be necessary to repeat 
the operation. 



132 THE COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

Dropsy of the Feet. — This is an abnormal enlarging of the foot 
and shank, especially noticeable in the shank, which loses the nat- 
ural curves of its outlines and becomes cylindrical in appearance, 
suggesting somewhat the leg of an elephant, and occasionally 
called ** elephantiasis," though the disease in poultry seems of quite 
different character from elephantiasis in human beings. Sanborn 
says dropsy of the feet is simply a swelling of the feet and toes due 
to a too sluggish state of the circulation, and that overfeeding and 
lack of exercise may cause this trouble. For treatment he recom- 
mends a laxative, green food, and plain food, with abundant exer- 
cise after the feet have regained a normal condition. 

Dropsy of the Brain. — Is mentioned by Hill as a disease occa- 
sionally affecting young chicks. 

Emphysema. 

This is a trouble quite common in young chicks. The skin puffs 
out like a ball in mild cases, the puff being usually about the size 
of a hickory nut, and located near the juncture of neck and body, 
and in all the cases I have seen on the side and quite high up. 
Sometimes there is but one puff; sometimes both sides have them . 
Occasionally cases are reported where the puffing covers nearly the 
whole body, the skin of the chick being so inflated that locomotion 
becomes difficult. These appear to be aggravated cases of emphy- 
sema; but I know of no authoritative report on the nature of such 
cases. 

Vale says this trouble is generally found in growing chicks 
reared in close quarters, and usually found associated with some 
lung trouble, and is certainly due to obstruction of the air passages, 
rupture of the air cells, and escape of the air into the intra-muscular 
tissues. For treatment he suggests puncturing the skin with a 
needle to let out the air, and giving two grains nitrate of iron to 
each wineglassful of the chicks' drinking water, and if lung trouble 
is present treating particularly for it. It is rather to be recom- 
mended that no effort be made to treat such chicks. Even if cured 
of the trouble, they rarely develop satisfactorily. 

Epilepsy. 

Fowls sometimes have convulsive attacks, frequently accom- 
panied by unconsciousness. Convulsions may be caused by intes- 



CAUSES OF LEG WEAKNESS. 133 

tinal worms, or by brain or heart disorders. Salmon says that 
epilepsy also occurs when no apparent cause for it can be dis- 
covered. Treatment is successful only when the symptoms are 
produced by worms in the intestines. (See chapter on internal 
parasites). 

Kidney Troubles. 

That kidney diseases occur often among poultry is extremely 
probable, but they present no special external symptoms, and have 
been given little attention by investigators of the diseases of 
poultry. 

Les: Weakness. 

This term is used to refer particularly to cases where without 
pronounced lameness the fowl or chick, otherwise seeming to be 
in good condition, will use its legs very little, the trouble seeming 
to be simple weakness of those members. The symptoms of leg 
weakness are so like those of one kind of rheumatism that in 
isolated cases it is impossible to say with any certainty which is 
which. When many cases occur the character of the trouble can 
usually be discovered by examination of conditions to which the 
fowls are subjected. If the house is damp, or if (though the house 
is not especially at fault in this respect) continued damp weather 
prevents keeping it as dry as is desirable, and fowls partially lose 
the use of their legs, the trouble is more likely to be rheumatic. 
If the house and atmosphere are reasonably dry, the trouble is 
more likely to be weakness due to a disproportionate increase in 
weight and strength, and naturally manifesting itself in the legs 
first. In the case of chickens fed heavily and growing rapidly it 
may usually be safely assumed that the trouble is " leg weakness." 
To some extent the trouble is hereditary, and it occurs oftenest in 
chicks of the large breeds. Some authorities mention^overcrowd- 
ing and close quarters as causes of leg weakness, but where such 
conditions are present the leg weakness is more likely to be an 
accompaniment of diseases which plainly show other symptoms. 

Simple *' leg weakness " is easily remedied, and when stock is 
known to be liable to it — easily prevented. For treatment see that 
the birds have plenty of room, and fresh air day and night; feed 
no ground or wet grains ; in feeding scatter some of the hard 



134 THE COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

grains where the birds can eat a small meal readily, the rest more 
widely that to get a full meal they must move about. Do not feed 
too often — not more than three times a day — while any tendency to 
weakness is present. L'ean meat, cut bone, and green food may be 
given freely, but fat meat should be avoided. Some authorities 
advise putting bone meal or phosphate of lime in the morning 
mash, but I have had more satisfactory- results by omitting the 
mash than by feeding bone meal in it. The trouble is prevented 
by avoiding an excessive proportion of soft foods, and the too free 
use of stimulants and condiments, and by the maintenance of good 
sanitary conditions, but above all by avoiding breeding from birds 
of loosely knit frames and lacking in that sturdy symmetry of 
build which characterizes large fowls having strength proportionate 
to their weight. 

«« Pip ♦♦ — Inflammation of the Mouth. 

" Pip " is a term in very common use among poultry keepers, and 
applied chiefly to a symptom occurring in many cases of cold or 
fever when the nostrils being obstructed and the fowls breathing 
through the mouth, the skin of mouth and tongue become hard and 
dry, and a bony tip may form on the tongue by the hardening and 
drying of the skin of that member, this condition being aggra- 
vated when catarrhal discharges adhere to the skin and dry and 
accumulate. Treatment should be given first for the primary cause 
of the trouble. Do not attempt to remove the pip by force. 
Moisten the mouth with vaseline, oil, or glycerine, and when the 
dry scale is loose enough to be removed without injury to the skin 
to which it is attached remove it gently. 

Rheumatism. 

A form of rheumatism which is not readily distinguished from 
leg weakness was mentioned under that topic. If the fowl so 
affected continues subject to conditions which develop rheumatic 
trouble it soon becomes lame, and in the case of a laying hen there 
is sometimes an apparent connection between imperfectly formed 
and soft shelled eggs and rheumatism which in fat hens might be 
attributed to that condition, but when we find it in hens that seem 
in perfect condition, and sound except for rheumatism, and when 



TRLATMLNT FOR RHLUMATISM. 135 

it disappears with the rheumatism, there is seen to be a connection 
which cannot be explained as due to another cause. 

In this the most common form of rheumatism stiffness and 
lameness are the conspicuous symptoms. There is generally no 
enlargement of the joints, and no unusual heat perceptible to the 
touch. As a rule it quickly disappears when the birds are put in 
warm dry quarters. 

Rheumatism with inflammation and enlargement of the joints 
and ulcerations which may destroy the bone sometimes occurs, 
probably in most cases as a development from the less serious form 
of the trouble just described. When the disease has reached this 
stage treatment of individuals is generally futile, and always 
unprofitable. In the earlier stages of inflammation and enlarge- 
ment of joints one of the following treatments may be given : — 

"To remove local conditions softly rub the legs with tincture of 
opium, or extract of witch hazel, and then wrap them in flannel. 
To meet the constitutional symptoms, put into the drink fifteen 
grains of iodide of potassium to one quart of water. Bicarbonate 
of soda or salicylic acid maybe used ; but we consider the iodide of 
potassium best in the general treatment of rheumatism." — Sanborn. 

" Begin treatment with a dose of epsom salts, twenty to thirty 
grains. The following day add thirty to forty grains bicarbonate 
of soda (baking soda) to the quart of drinking water, and give two 
or three grains of salicylic acid twice a day. Apply camphorated 
or carbolic ointment to the affected joints." — Salmon. 

Both of the authorities above quoted mention too heavy feeding 
of nitrogenous food as a contributing cause in rheumatism, and 
urge the importance of giving special attention to the supply of 
green vegetable food for rheumatic fowls. 

Vertigo. 

This is a trouble not readily distinguished from epilepsy and 
convulsions, if indeed it should be considered something distinct. 
Perhaps the best way to treat it here is to consider vertigo a term 
used by some poultrymen to describe the convulsive symptoms 
occurring as a result of brain or heart disorders, or of a super- 
abundance of worms in the intestines, or in the advanced stages of 
diseases like cholera and enteritis. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Accidents and Injuries. 



J[ NUMBER of the diseases treated in preceding chapters 
Jx. result sometimes from injuries, usually from injuries not 
TiGliced in casual observation, and often not discovered on exam- 
ination, but supposed to have occurred and to have caused the 
•development of disease. A familiar illustration of this class of 
injuries is found in the disease of the foot called bumblefoot, 
probably due in the great majority of cases to the repetition, daily 
or many times a day, of a bruise on the foot which would have no 
serious results if not often repeated. The accident in this case is 
repeated many times before it produces results which call attention 
to it. 

In this chapter we discuss accidents and injuries, the effects of 
which are immediate and conspicuous, and also a few injuries 
^vhich while conspicuous in results which follow their constant 
repetition, do not develop disease, and which usually have no more 
«erious consequences than to spoil the appearance of the fowl for 
the time being. 

Baldness. 

Bald heads in fowls result either from skin diseases and parasites, 
or, in females from the tearing out or breaking off of the feathers 
on the head by the male in the act of copulation. In the latter case 
.nothing can be done to prevent it while the birds are mated. There 



LOSS OF FLATHLRS ON THL BACK. 137 

is no injury to the hen except in looks. For treatment of baldness 
due to skin diseases or parasites, see the chapters especially treat- 
ing those subjects. 

Barebacks. 

The loss of feathers on the backs of hens by being broken by 
the feet of the male in service, is one of the most common phe- 
nomena of the poultry yard, and at the same time one of the most 
irregular. Some males mated with only one or two hens will not 
damage their feathers at all ; others mated with ten or a dozen hens 
will within a few weeks have the feathers broken on the backs of 
nearly all the hens. In the same flock some hens will have backs 
bare, while the plumage of others will be in perfect condition. It 
is often assumed that if a part only of the hens of a flock have the 
plumage of the back damaged, these must be the favorites of the 
male, while the others must be either neglected by him or avoid 
him. When all the hens in a flock have the feathers of the back 
broken or lost, the usual assumption is that the male bird is of 
unusual vigor, and therefore valuable for breeding purposes. 
These conclusions are probably correct, as to some cases, but not 
of all, and perhaps not of most cases. To speak with certainty on 
that point would require closer observations than have yet been 
published, and also a knowledge of the minds of fowls which we 
are not likely to attain. In some cases it is very clear from the 
low fertility secured that the services of the male, though well dis- 
tributed and frequent enough to break the feathers on the backs 
of every one of his mates, are not effective, and a comparison of 
the actions of such a male with those of one which gives good fer- 
tility without any such unsightly evidence of frequent service sug- 
gests that the breaking of feathers may be an accompaniment of 
ineffective or awkward service. This point is of importance 
because of the common assumption that the male which breaks 
the feathers of his mates must be all right, and that females with 
broken plumage on the backs must have been regularly served. 
Both conclusions may be wrong. The male described may be 
impotent or so awkward that most of his services are ineffective, 
while the female with damaged plumage may be one that refuses 
the attentions of her mate. Hence it should not be taken for 



138 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

granted that barebacks in hens are evidence of effective service. 
There is also reason to suppose that in some instances this loss of 
feathers is an indication of brittleness in the feathers, and that they 
are badly damaged by usage which feathers of better quality would 
take without damage. 

As a rule no serious consequences follow the loss of feathers on 
the back of the hen. A hen in this condition may be more likely 
to be injured by the spurs of the male, for the feathers furnish 
some protection, but a male that injures hens with his spurs will 
often cut them badly through the feathers. 

Barebacks caused by the feet of the males should not be confused 
with barebacks caused by feather eating. In the former case the 
feathers are broken across the middle of the back, in the latter they 
are plucked from near the tail. 

Bruises. 

Superficial bruises, other than those on the feet which cause 
corns and bumblefoot, occur most frequently on the breasts and 
hocks of fowls which sleep on a floor containing stones and gravel 
rrom which the fowls are not properly protected by bedding. 

Bruises due to a blow are not often noticed on a live fowl, 
because the feathers conceal the broken or discolored skin ; but in 
dressing fowls such bruises are often found. Many of the bruises 
found under such circumstances were received when the fowls were 
caught to be killed or allowed to "flop around" after being killed, 
but others are evidently of different and more remote origin. 

Tumors or sores which appear to have been caused by bruises, 
are sometimes found on fowls. 

The best way to treat bruises when discovered is to put the fowl 
where it will be quiet, and leave its restoration to nature. If 
nature does not promptly begin to mend matters no treatment that 
a non-professional can give is likely to be effective. In fact, if the 
fowl does not promptly begin to recuperate it is quite certain that 
it has received some internal injury. 

Choking. 

Choking is a frequent cause of sudden death in the poultry yard. 
Fowls fed house scraps often choke on pieces of bone or gristle. 



HOW COMBS ARL INJURLD. 139 

Large splinters of cut bone also cause choking sometimes. Chok- 
ing is most apt to occur when fowls through hunger eat very 
greedily. I used for years a bone cutter which left many splinters 
of bone on which fowls might have choked had they tried to 
swallow them; but the fowls were fed cut bone often, and always 
at a time of the day when they were not very hungry. The large 
splinters and ragged shavings of bone were mostly left in the 
troughs, and I never had a fowl or chick choke on cut bone. The 
accident, while of frequent occurrence, happens in any particular 
flock at such long intervals that unless the fowls are especially val- 
uable it is hardly worth while to take special precautions against it. 
Valuable fowls may be yarded where they will get nothing that is 
not given them, and the person taking care of them can see that all 
food is of such size and character that it would not cause choking. 
But when fowls are only of ordinary value, and when it is desired 
to feed waste that may contain pieces on which fowls might choke, 
it will cost less to lose a bird by choking occasionally than to take 
special precautions to prevent that catastrophe. 

Comb Injuries. 

The common injuries of the comb are of two kinds, — cuts and 
frost bites : 

Cuts. — The combs of most male birds and of the females of the 
larger combed breeds are so prominent that being very tender and 
easily cut or torn, they are often injured in this way. A fowl 
which flies in alarm against a fence or inside partition of wire net- 
ting, is very likely to cut the comb on the wire. A fowl shipped in 
a coop so low that its comb will strike the top is almost sure to cut 
the comb on the wire if wire is used, or on the sharp edges of slats 
if the top is of wood. When the top is as high as it should be 
there is still some danger of the fowl if alarmed dashing against it 
and cutting and bruising the comb, but the danger is much less. 
The point of a nail or tack protruding inside the coop anywhere is 
quite sure to cut the comb of a fowl confined in the coop. 

Besides the wholesale cutting and tearing of comb and wattles 
which takes place when fowls fight in the open, the combs of males 
are often badly cut, in extreme cases eaten away, in their efforts to 
fight through small apertures in fences or partitions. Any damage 



140 THE COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

done to the comb by cutting is generally irreparable as far as 
appearances go, but rarely of serious consequence in its effects on 
the breeding or utility value of the bird. The comb of a vigorous 
healthy male bird may be literally cut to pieces in a fight and he 
seem none the worse for it, and his comb heal in a few days with- 
out treatment of any kind. But if there are deep cuts or tears 
resulting in displacement of a part of the comb or wattles, such 
should be put in place and sewn together with silk thread, and the 
bird put where other birds will not molest it and there is no dan- 
ger of injury to the comb while healing. If there is any question 
in the poultry keeper's mind as to the wisdom of leaving the heal- 
ing to nature either because he fears that the bird will not recover 
promptly without treatment, or feels that he ought to do all he can 
to assist nature, he may isolate the bird, bathe the comb with car- 
bolized water, or with water to which a little chloro-naptholeum or 
sulpho-napthol has been added, and then treat with carbolized vas- 
eline. If this is done the bird must be kept in a clean place where 
no dirt will get into the comb. My observation has been that 
recovery from injuries sustained in fighting is more rapid when 
the fowl is let alone, and that unless a surgical operation is required 
the best thing to do is to treat the fowl as if nothing had happened, 
leave him in his usual quarters with his usual companions — but 
make sure that the fowls which fought cannot renew the battle. 

Frost Bites. — The combs and wattles of fowls are often frost 
bitten; the feet of fowls which have shelter rarely, if ever. Cases 
of frost bitten feet occur mostly with fowls exposed to severe 
weather, and are very rare in the flocks of people interested enough 
in their poultry to take any interest in poultry literature. But 
combs are so easily frost bitten that it is quite a rare thing for a 
poultryman keepingfowls with medium to large combs in northerly 
latitudes to get through a winter without any cases of frost bite. 
Efforts to prevent it often fail because keeping houses warm 
enough to prevent frost bites means making the fowls more sus- 
ceptible to cold. The only absolute insurance against frost bitten 
combs is in keeping houses so warm that water will not freeze in 
them, and this most poultrymen find impracticable. The practical 
ways of securing a measure of prevention are : (i) keepingfowls 
with small combs; (2) accustoming the fowls to low temper- 



TRE.ATMLNT OF FROST BITL. 141 

atures ; and (3) enclosing the roosts so that on cold nights the 
fowls are practically in a large box where the heat from their own 
bodies keeps out the frost. None of these methods insure abso- 
lutely against frost bites. They simply reduce the possibilities of 
combs being frosted at ordinary winter temperatures. The first 
and second, and first and third points mentioned are often com- 
bined ; the second and third not so often, though some poultrymen 
do use closed roosting spaces in open houses. 

Besides the general means of preventing frost bites just men- 
tioned, special precautions are sometimes taken. Poultrymen 
■whose houses are frost proof avoid letting fowls outdoors when 
there is danger of frost nipping the combs. Novices whose houses 
are warm often thoughtlessly let the fowls, which accustomed to 
warm quarters at night, and coming directly from them, are espe- 
cially susceptible to cold, out early on cold mornings with the 
result that many combs are severely frosted at a temperature to 
which fowls accustomed to cold would be immune. In houses 
where water may freeze, though the fowls' combs while dry are not 
frosted, frost may nip the wattles badly if wet in the drinking 
water, and unless drinking fountains are used which keep the 
wattles out of the water, it is better to let fowls wait for a drink 
until the house temperature rises, or give them snow or cracked 
ice to eat. Mashes so wet that they wet the wattles of the fowls 
when eating, are to be avoided in cold weather. 

The portion of the comb frozen will vary from the extreme 
points of the serrations and a little edge on the wattles to almost 
the entire comb and wattles. In severe cases, the comb almost 
down to the head, and practically the whole of the wattles may be 
frozen stiff. In this condition the wattles if long and pendulous, 
will rattle as the bird moves. While not yet thawed out the nat- 
ural color of the comb is retained, but modified by the white frost. 
If the trouble is discovered before the frost begins to come out take 
some cold lard or vaseline, smear it thickly on the affected parts, 
and by manipulation with the fingers gradually work the frost out 
and restore the circulation. Light rubbing and gentle pressure 
along the lines between the frozen part and that which had not 
been frozen, or to which circulation is restored, will result in a 
natural restoration of circulation through the areas that were 



142 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

frozen, and though the comb w ill be high colored and sore for a 
few days, it may be saved with the loss of only the skin. When 
the frost 's out anoint the comb with a mixture of vaseline five 
tablespoons, glycerine two tablespoons, turpentine one teaspoon. 
Apply this two or three times a day, keeping the fowl in a cool but 
comfortable place. A dark coop, opened only to treat and feed the 
bird, will keep it perfectly quiet and hasten recovery. The comb 
thus restored is extremely sensitive to cold, and the bird must be 
carefully kept from exposure to severe freezing temperatures for 
the remainder of the winter. 

If the condition of the comb is not discovered until after it has 
been thawed out in a rising temperature it will be found highly 
inflamed. The bird should be removed to quiet, cool quarters, and 
the ointment mentioned above used as directed. This will alleviate 
the pain and reduce the amount of the comb that will die and fall 
off. The frosted part will turn green, and finally black, and as the 
sound part heals and forms a new skin, the dead part dries up and 
falls off. 

It is generally believed that severe frost bites cause a shock to 
the system which diminishes the breeding value of a fowl during 
the following season, but this result is not invariable, and if a bird 
intended for a breeder seems to have completely recovered from a 
frost bite the breeder may use it with reasonable assurance that it 
will prove serviceable. 

Fractures and Dislocations. 

Broken Limbs. — Fractures of most common occurrence are of 
the leg, wing, and beak. 

A broken shank is easily set by anyone, and the simplest treat- 
ment is that given by Sanborn : — "Straighten the bone, wind a 
two-inch cotton bandage around the limb twice, then place wooden 
toothpicks up and down the shank; take two turns more with the 
bandage, cut off the cloth, and fasten with needle and thread." 

Sanborn advises killing fowls with broken thighs or wings. 
Hill considers the setting of broken bones an operation "of simplic- 
ity and ease," and though I question whether the average poultry- 
man would agree with him as to any case but the shank. Hill's 
instructions are appended for the benefit of those who wish to try 



TRE.ATMLNT OF FRACTURES. 143 

to save valuable fowls vv^ith bad fractures : — " For fractures below 
the hock a goose quill makes the best splint. Take a stout one, 
split it in half or into three, and steep each portion in boiling water, 
so that it may be softened and flattened out; then smear the inner 
surface with thick gum, and having adjusted the fracture, the leg 
being held straight by an assistant, apply the quills over the 
broken part longitudinally, and bandage them up with tape or nar- 
row linen, which should also be rendered adhesive with gum. 
Fractures of the thigh may be treated in a similar manner, using 
pasteboard instead of quill, and well gumming the feathers before 
applying it. A broken wing, after being placed in proper position, 
should have the inside feathers well soaked with thick gum, over 
which place a piece of pasteboard or the bottom of a match box. 
The long feathers should then be tied together toward the end with 
tape, which should be passed over the back and attached to the 
opposite wing. This prevents the injured one from drooping, and 
if the bird is kept quiet a cure is soon effected." 

For bandaging fractures, bicycle tape is good, and can be 
obtained without delay everywhere. 

Broketi Beak. — Fowls occasionally have a part or the whole of 
one mandible broken or torn oH. If the injury is slight, trim the 
broken mandible off symmetrically and trim off enough of the other 
to make them more nearly equal in length, that the fowl may be 
able to eat. For serious injuries of this kind it is better to kill the 
fowl, though instances have been reported of fowls living and 
managing to secure food with the beak very badly damaged. 

Dislocations of the joints of the wings or legs of fowls often 
result from rough handling, especially when catching them. If 
the limb is replaced and the fowl kept quiet it will generally recorer 
completely. If the dislocation is not adjusted the limb becomes 
stiff. 

Strangling. 

Fowls often are strangled by having the head caught so that they 
cannot extricate it. This happens when they put the head through 
an opening wide enough at one point to admit the head, but nar- 
rowing so that when the head is moved it cannot be withdrawn. 
When lath fences are used with laths quite close together fowls 



144 THL COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

often catch the head between two laths when attempting to flj over, 
and death follows from strangulation. 

Strains. 

Under this title I mention an accident in a way the reverse of 
strangling. Fowls often get hung by the feet. A toe, or the foot, 
or a spur may catch in wire netting or in a crack, and the fowl 
hang in this way for hours before being discovered, and when 
found have the limb that was caught badly strained, while the 
strain and shock have affected the whole system. If there has 
been a dislocation it should be replaced. If the parts are only 
strained all that can be done is to keep the fowl quiet and com- 
fortable. If the strain was not too long continued it will usually 
recover. If perpendicular spaces between boards or slats in walls, 
fences, and coops are made either too narrow for the fowl to insert 
the head, or wide enough to admit of its free insertion and with- 
drawal, hanging by the head will rarely occur, though sometimes 
the head is caught fast in the angle of a space amply wide for 
safety ; but hanging by the feet cannot be effectually guarded 
against where nettings and slats are used. Fowls may fly up 
against these thousands of times without catching on them, and 
then the toe or spur catch fast, and I have seen fowls hung by the 
toe nail caught in a crack in the roosting platform or top of the 
nest box. Such accidents could only be prevented absolutely by a 
construction of buildings and fences which would increase their 
cost far beyond the aggregate of possible losses in this way. 

Poisoning. 

A great many cases of poisoning poultry occur. These are 
mostly accidental, though occasionally cases are reported where it 
is suspected, and apparently with reason, that the poison had been 
maliciously placed where the fowls would get it. 

The symptoms and treatment of poison cases have been described 
in connection with inflammation of the crop and stomach, diseases 
frequently due to poisoning, and it remains to treat here only of 
general preventive measures. For poison maliciously administered 
prevention is practically impossible. It is so easy for anyone so 
disposed to give fowls poisoned food without being detected. 
Accidental poisoning is avoided by keeping fowls on one's own 



TREATMENT OF WOUNDS. 145 

premises ; by properly disposing of all poisonous or irritant sub- 
stances, and hy care in the use of such substances as disinfectants. 
The greater number of poison cases reported to me occur in flocks 
at liberty in streets, alleys, and vacant lots where poisonous refuse 
is often thrown. As the owner of poultry can have no control 
over what is deposited in such places, poisoning is one of the risks 
he takes when he allows his fowls to run at large. 

Peritonitis. 

Peritonitis, inflammation of the membranous lining of the abdom- 
inal cavity, is a development with rupture of the intestines, rupture 
of the oviduct, and diseases of the intestines and other organs 
located in the abdominal cavity. It may also result from external 
injuries of the abdomen, and sometimes occurs as a result of capon- 
izing. Protracted cases of peritonitis often develop abdominal 
dropsy. The disease is almost invariably fatal. 

Wounds. 

Cuts and wounds elsewhere than about the combs and heads of 
fowls are comparatively rare. They occur oftenest on the backs 
or sides of hens, and are caused by the cutting or tearing of the 
spurs or nails of the male. Sometimes the damage done in this 
way is very serious. Injuries from the spurs may be prevented by- 
cutting off or trimming them. They may either have the sharp 
points rounded off, or have the entire spur removed, as seems 
advisable. To cut off the spur take a fine saw such as is used ta 
saw metal, and staunch the bleeding with powdered chalk or sul- 
phate of iron. Injuries from the toe nails of the male are not so 
surely prevented. All that can be done with him is to trim and 
smooth the nails, and this is not a sure prevention, for the stub 
nail may still tear the skin. I have known of instances where a 
cover for the back of the hen was used, being made of canvas and 
secured in place with strings of tape, but this practice is recom- 
mended for trial rather than as an approved preventive of injury. 

Unless the cuts in the skin of the female are large and very- 
ragged, so that the edges do not come together, they will generally 
heal without special attention, provided they are not again injured 
in the same way before the wound is thoroughly healed. To guard 



146 THL COMMON-SENSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

against this the hen should be kept awaj from the male, and if the 
wound is very bad it is better to isolate her, that no roughing from 
the other hens may retard recovery. If a cut or tear in the skin 
will not unite of itself it should be stitched up, care being taken not 
to leave any dirt or matter under the skin. A dressing of an anti- 
septic powder will help to keep the wound in healthy healing con- 
dition. 

Cuts of the feet of fowls are of more rare occurrence, but when 
they do occur are often deep, and even when slight should have 
careful attention, for if neglected the dirt gets into them, and an 
injury which if given attention at the proper time would have been 
of little consequence may quickly become incurable. The cut 
should be washed clean with an antiseptic solution, and bound up 
to keep the dirt out, and keep the action of the foot from reopening 
it. If a bad cut it should be examined and dressed daily for ser- 
■eral days, by which time healing should have advanced so far that 
further treatment is not needed. Slight cuts in the feet rarely 
require more than one treatment. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Internal Parasites of Poultry. 



MANY of the diseases described in this book are either caused 
by parasitic bacteria or germt or aggravated by the 
abnormal increase of some parasite, often a rery minute one, which 
occurs when disease disturbs the balance which normally exists 
between the development of these germs and the resistant powert 
of a healthy fowl. Generally speaking, these microscopic parasites 
require no special attention from the poultryman. He cannot 
determine their presence or identify them by ordinary observation, 
and for a knowledge of their existence and the damage they may 
sometimes do he is wholly indebted to the scientific investigator. 
But there are two classes of worms which may be found without a 
microscope, and which may debilitate and destroy fowls when no 
organic disease exists. These are the gape worm, infesting the 
windpipe, and the several kinds of worms which infest the intes- 
tines. In popular usage the trouble caused by the gape worm is 
called •• gapes," while "worms" in fowls means specifically intes- 
tinal worms. The topics will be treated here under those headings. 

Gapes. 

The disease called gafes^ and the name gape tvorm^ given the 
worm which causes it, take their name from the *' gaping" which is 
the conspicuous symptom of the presence of these worms in the 
windpipe in annoying numbers. As gaping is not a symptom 
peculiar to this trouble, but is common in connection with dis- 



148 THL COMMON-5LNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

turbances of the digestive organs, while a gasping not clearly dis- 
tinct from gaping may occur with respiratory troubles, it should 
never be assumed that the trouble is "gapes." An examination 
should be made. If the gape worms are present they will be found 
adhering to the trachea or windpipe. They are small, red, round 
worms, usually attached to each other and to the membrane in pairs, 
(male and female) presenting somewhat the appearance of a single 
worm with two heads. The female is about half an inch, the male 
about one-fifth of an inch in length. If there are no worms visible 
take a stiff feather (not too large) and having stripped the quill to 
leave only a little brush at the end, put it gently down the wind- 
pipe, turn once or twice, and withdraw. If gape worms are pres- 
ent some should be found adhering to the feather. 

They suck the blood, and in small chicks or in large numbers in 
grown fowls, cause severe irritation, inflammation, and a mucus 
excretion which interferes with breathing, and is often coughed or 
spit up. The worms themselves sometimes collect in such masses 
that breathing becomes very difficult, and may become entirely 
obstructed, causing death by suffocation. 

Gape worms are communicated to fowls from infected fowls and 
also from infected soil. It is supposed that the contagion between 
fowls is by eating the worms or their eggs that have been coughed 
up or evacuated by infected fowls, and that the contagion from 
infected soil comes through eating earthworms. It is said that the 
earthworms in infected soil harbor gape worms at all seasons of the 
year. Infected areas are sometimes small, only a few yards in 
length and breadth, and if there are only a few of them on the 
premises and they can be definitely located and bounded and the 
fowls kept from them, both fowls and chicks may safely be given 
the run of the rest of the place. To locate and bound these areas, 
however, requires a more thorough examination of the soil than 
most people will make, and I have known of only a rery few 
instances in which this was done. 

There are large sections of the country in which gape worms are 
unknown, other sections where the poultryman must wage warfare 
against them every season. On sandy well drained soils they 
rarely give trouble. They thrive and maintain themselves best 
on heavy, clayey soils and in wet and warm weather. 



TRE.ATMLNT FOR GAPE. WORMS. 149 

Individual surgical treatment seems to be the only reliable way 
to rid an infected bird of these worms. Various remedies for treat- 
ing birds in flocks or groups, either by inhalations, or by medi- 
cines have been given, and some have recommended individual 
medical treatment, but nothing short of the mechanical removal of 
the worms seems to be generally effective. This is accomplished 
by using a feather as already described, or by using a loop of 
horsehair or fine wire. Gape worm extractors of wire are manu- 
factured and sold by dealers in poultry supplies. Anyone can 
make such an extractor for himself, using a No. 30 wire. Take a 
piece about 12 or 14 inches long, double it, then twist the two ends 
so that a loop just wide enough to go down the windpipe and half 
to three-fourths of an inch long is left at one end, while the wires, 
twisted together for the rest of their length make the long handle 
for the instrument. When this is inserted in the windpipe and 
turned around the worms are cut loose, and what arc not with- 
drawn with the wire are coughed up by the chick or fowl. These 
worms should be burned. Treatment in this way is tedious. Its 
general success depends upon the skill of the operator. One who 
has the knack of performing such an operation quickly and gently 
may find it profitable, while one who is awkward and rough with 
the chicks may find that as he performs it the operation is but 
partially effective for the removal of the worms, and very hard on 
the patients. 

Preventive treatment to be fully effective, seems to require that 
fowls be kept away from infected ground for several seasons. It 
is said that ground from which poultry is kept for three years, the 
land meanwhile being sown to grass or cultivated, will be entirely 
free from the gape worm. To a poultry keeper whose area of land 
is small this means moving or keeping no poultry for several years. 
Where land is abundant gape worms can often be avoided by mov- 
ing the poultry to a plot not recently occupied by them. Treat- 
ment to disinfect the soil by destroying the gape worms in it, the 
object being to continue the poultry on it, is not often profitable. 

Worms (Intestinal). 

There are something more than two score varieties of these, but 
so far as his own treatment of them is concerned, the poultryman 



150 THL COMMON-5LN5E POULTRY DOCTOR. 

tnay consider all worms as alike, requiring the same treatment. 
Worms in small quantities inhabit the digestive organs of all fowls 
and animals without causing them serious inconvenience. It is 
even maintained by some authorities that in limited numbers these 
parasites are beneficial, though in just what way they are beneficial 
I have never seen stated, and it seems more reasonable, in the 
present state of knowledge of the subject to claim no more than 
that when not too numerous they do no perceptible harm. Worms 
are contagious in that they are transmitted from fowl to fowl, 
probably always indirectly by being deposited on the ground by 
one fowl and taken from it by another; but if it is true as stated 
that worms in small numbers are always present, contagion is not 
required to account for their increase to troublesome numbers in 
many members of a flock simultaneously. The more reasonable 
assumption in the premises is that all these fowls alike were in a 
condition favorable to an excessive development of the parasites. 
This is a phase of the question on which the literature of the sub- 
ject has nothing — yet it seems to be the all-important point to 
determine. 

The symptoms of worms are the general symptoms of dullness 
and depression, with sometimes convulsions and epileptic attacks. 
Accurate diagnosis of the presence of worms can be made only 
by observation of worms voided with the droppings. The best 
time to look for these is early in the morning, before the fowls 
have left the roosts, and perhaps eaten any worms that have been 
excreted. Failure to find worms in the droppings does not prove 
that they are not the cause of the trouble. Further test should be 
made with suspected individuals. One or more of these may be 
confined, separately in clean coops with bare board floors, and the 
droppings observed. The likelihood of worms being voided, if 
present, is increased by giving the fowl a dose of vermifuge, as 
recommended in treating worms, or a purgative dose of epsom 
salts (see "Constipation," p. 130), though even this test is not 
infallible, for the worms may be located where the remedy does 
not reach them. If efforts to secure evidence from the living fowls 
of the presence of worms fail, and the poultryman is at a loss to 
account for the trouble with his fowls, a suspected fowl should be 
killed and examined, and if this is still insuflScient, the case should 



RLMLDIL5 FOR WORMS. 15! 

be taken to a competent veterinary. It is of greatest importance 
that the facts in such cases be learned and proper treatment given, 
for w^hether the worms cause the trouble or conditions exist which 
favor their increase, the situation is full of danger to the keeper of 
a flock in which serious trouble it associated with worms ; and 
while I do not wish to unnecessarily alarm anyone, the fact that 
in recent years worms in epidemic form have put a number of 
poultry plants out of business, should be stated as a warning to 
poultrymen troubled with unidentified diseases presenting symp- 
toms which might be associated with worms. 

In citing remedies for worms I have preferred those offered by 
authorities who prescribe moderate doses ; for, as Hill says : "It is 
better to administer a safe dose and repeat it in a week, than an 
overdose calculated to produce drastic and dangerous results." 

Hill says further : "In my opinion santonine, in one grain dose, 
combined with seven grains of areca nut is the most useful and 
effectual poultry vermifuge." 

Other remedies prescribed by the same authority are : — 

'*Ten grains freshly ground areca nut, given fasting, in a tea- 
spoonful of warm milk." 

" Three minims* oil of male fern in a teaspoonful of salad oil." 

"Food should be withheld for three hours after the administra- 
tion of worm medicine, and then a warm soft meal should be 
allowed, and this diet continued for a couple of days before return- 
ing to ordinary food. It is most essential that all parasites 
expelled be rigorously destroyed." — Hill. 

"Give from ten to fifteen drops of oil of turpentine in a teaspoon- 
ful of sweet oil night and morning for three days." — Vale. 

General treatment may be given a flock of fowls by mixing gar- 
lic or powdered pomegranate root bark with the food. The pro- 
portion of garlic may be as large as the birds will eat. Of pome- 
granate root bark a teaspoonful is mixed with the food for fifty 
fowls. Whenever practicable a stock which has been badly infested 
with worms should be moved after treatment to new ground. If 
kept on the same ground the premises should be disinfected as 
thoroughly as possible, and whenever practicable the floors of 

*A minim may be roughly measured as a drop. 



1 52 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

houses and yards should be renewed. Stock that has been greatly 
debilitated by worms does not make the best of breeding stock, and 
when stock seems peculiarly susceptible to worms the owner will 
find it good policy to clean it out and make a fresh start. Indeed 
that is a good plan to pursue with stock showing special tendency 
to any disease, and with stock which has been through any serious 
epidemic. Close selection for vigor in the breeding stock should 
be sought after such experience with more than usual care, and 
even when it does not seem necessary to dispose at once of all 
the stockj it may be wise to gradually replace it with stock free 
from its weakness. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Insects Injurious to Poultry. 



TTlHE minute parasites living upon the external surface of the 
i bodies of fowls which cause skin diseases were discussed in 
Chapter X. In this chapter we consider the universally trouble- 
some lice and mites of greater size and more active habits com- 
monly known as lice, or by those who speak of them with more 
discrimination, as lice and mites ; and also a few other insects occa- 
sionally troublesome everywhere, or annually troublesome in some 
sections. Considered as a class these differ from the parasites caus- 
ing skin diseases in that their attacks are more vicious and the 
results more immediately injurious, yet the more prevalent of them 
are much easier to deal with, for those that live constantly upon the 
bodies of the fowls the fowl itself combats successfully if proper 
provision is made for that purpose, and those which visit the fowl 
only at night to feed may be easily destroyed in their harboring 
places by day; while those which bite or sting the fowl, but do 
not remain with them, — or those, as rose bugs, which may kill chicks 
that eat them, are not so universally troublesome. 

Salmon names over fifty insects that prey on poultry, besides the 
mites which cause scurfy skin diseases and those which live in the 
connective tissues. But, for purposes of treatment to destroy them 
or alleviate injuries caused by them, we need not make more 
accurate distinctions between them than are ordinarily made by 



154 THL COMMON-SENSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

poultrymen who either class all parasites locating permanently on 
the fowl as lice, or distinguish them according to the regions where 
they are found, as body lice, head lice, etc., an erroneous distinc- 
tion ; and who generally are acquainted with only two kinds of par- 
asites preying upon the fowl by night and keeping concealed in 
crevices of the building by day — red mites, and bed bugs. 

Lice and Mites. 

Lice and mites are probably always present in small numbers on 
fowls, on chicks hatched and reared by natural methods, and in 
buildings or coops that have been long used for poultry. Chicks 
hatched in incubators, reared in new brooders and put into build- 
ings never occupied by other fowls might be absolutely free from 
lice for a time, but it is so easy for lice to be carried from place to 
place, and while not numerous they may escape notice so com- 
pletely that it is not safe to assume that premises are absolutely 
free from lice because precautions supposed to prevent the bring- 
ing of lice upon the place have been taken. Though such pre- 
cautions are undoubtedly useful for their purpose, one should not 
rely too implicitly upon them, but should also make such general 
provisions as are required to keep lice in subjection when they are 
assumed to be present in small numbers. 

Cause of Lice— How to Keep Them in Subjection. 

The first cause of lice is always contagion. They pass from fowl 
to fowl and with fowls from place to place. With ordinary cleanli- 
ness and suitable provision for the fowls dusting themselves, the 
poultryman whose fowls are rugged and thrifty has no occasion to 
wage the constant hand to hand conflict with lice which many 
writers insist upon as one of the principal features in success with 
poultry. The presence of lice in troublesome numbers may be 
taken as proof positive of weakness or unthriftiness in the stock 
or of slackness somewhere in care. Many poultrymen seriously 
troubled with lice will deny the first condition, resent any reflection 
upon their management, and insist that the lice were introduced 
accidentally, and in spite of precautions, or that they are unable to 
subdue them because the remedies tried prove ineffective. But it 
can be demonstrated that lice are very easily kept from increasing 
to troublesome numbers without ever giving treatment especially 



CONDITIONS UNFAVORABLL TO LICE. 155 

for lice to any healthy fowl. All that is necessarj- is to have sunny, 
well ventilated houses and coops, in which damp droppings and 
litter are never allowed to accumulate; to promptly isolate sick, 
dull, and listless fowls, transferring them while in such condition 
to a building never used for other purposes, and not directly con- 
nected with any other building, and to provide suitable dusting 
places for the fowls. When these items are given proper attention 
special treatment of the whole flock for lice may be omitted. The 
fowls and the conditions will take care of them. 

While what has just been said is true, it is equally true that on 
most poultry plants special treatment is necessary. There are sev- 
eral reasons for this. Perhaps the most important is the compar- 
ative rarity of flocks containing none but rugged fowls. It fre- 
quently happens that in an entire stock of hundreds of fowls a bird 
in perfect physical condition is a rarity, and the owner does not 
appreciate how his stock has deteriorated in condition. Again, it 
is often thought desirable to use for breeders or keep in laying pens 
specimens known to lack in vitality, and though the reasons for 
doing this may be good, the doing of it reduces the capacity of the 
flock to take care of lice without special assistance. In the matter 
of cleanliness a great many poultrymen while going to the extreme 
at some points, are slack in others, and consequently instead of a 
uniform condition of reasonable cleanliness they are over careful 
in some things, but leave opportunities for the lice to increase 
unmolested, and finally overrun the premises. The provision for 
dusting is too often such that the fowl will use it only (so to speak) 
under protest. There is a very general misconception as to the 
proper material for the dust bath, — coal ashes, or road dust com- 
posed largely of pulverized horse manure, are favorite materials, 
and the usual custom is to put these in a box only large enough for 
a few hens to use at a time. Sometimes insecticides are mixed 
with the material of the dust bath to make it more effective for 
the destruction of insects. My observation has been that such 
dust baths are patronized only as a last resort — that the lice have ta 
be very annoying before the fowls will use them. Fowls wallow 
by preference in clean sandy loam that is not absolutely dry. Dry 
dust and ashes rob the feathers and skin of necessary oil. Damp 
earth removes dirt from the feathers without absorbing oil. The 



156 THL COMMON-SENSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

primary purpose of wallowing is the cleansing of the feathers. 
Incidentally lice are destroyed. It is held by some authorities that 
in limited numbers lice serve the useful purpose of causing an irri- 
tation which prompts the fowl to wallow. Suitable and ample 
wallowing places for fowls should be made in their yards for 
weather when the ground is open. For winter, in a house with an 
earth floor, renewed annually as it should be, the most satisfactory 
way is to frequently rake the litter from the sunniest part of the 
floor, and allow the fowls to use it to wallow in, forking it over, 
and breaking it fine for them if the surface is at all caked or the 
ground so moist that it does not pulverize well. 

I have introduced this matter relating to the general remedial 
and preventive measures against lice in connection with the pres- 
entation of the causes and methods of distribution of lice in order 
to make as emphatic as possible the statement that such perpetual 
systematic treatment of fowls and houses for lice as many poultry- 
men religiously carry out is unnecessary, a waste of time, and a 
curtailment of profits. It is necessary only in so far as there is 
failure to make conditions which make it unnecessary. The con- 
ditions which make it unnecessary are essential conditions of good 
management. The subjection of lice is an incidental, yet practi- 
cally sure result of these conditions. Departures from these con- 
ditions in the direction of laxness call for appropriate special treat- 
ment, but the amount and duration of such treatment should be 
regulated by the occasion for them, not by routine. Unquestion- 
ably regular treatment for lice when thorough is effective, but the 
amount of time consumed in regular treatments that are never 
thorough, and the amount wasted in routine treatments that were 
not necessary, represent in the aggregate an enormous waste of 
effort. 

Insistence on the necessity of omitting unnecessary treatments 
for lice, and of making needed treatments thorough, may seem on 
the surface superfluous, but from long years of experience with poul- 
try, with and without lice, as well as with poultrymen having 
trouble with lousy fowls and buildings, I know how rare it is to 
find in practice the wise middle course between neglect and exces- 
sive precaution. 



RULE FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT. 157 

Having provided in the selection of fowls and in general manage- 
ment for conditions which reduce to the minimum the danger of 
troublesome increase of lice, the poultry keeper should adopt this 
rule of special treatment for lice : — 

Treat w^ith insect powder every sick fowl, every fowl that has 
been cooped for some days where it could not dust itself, every 
sitting hen when set, and at least twice again during the period of 
incubation, the last time just before the eggs are due to pip; treat 
the young chicks and hen when a brood is taken from the nest, and 
at intervals of a week until three weeks old. 

Special Treatment for Lice. 

This rule observed, the general conditions unfavorable to lice 
being maintained, should give full insurance against troubles from 
lice on either the bodies of the fowls or in the houses. But as 
poultrymen are often mistaken in their judgment as to the quality 
of heir care of fowls, as well as of the vigor of the fowls and their 
ability to resist the attacks of parasites, and as from various reasons 
poultry keepers unavoidably fail at times to maintain the conditions 
they know are advisable, it is not wise to rely absolutely on the 
general fact of preventive conditions, but whenever indications or 
suspected indications of lice are observed an examination for them 
should be made and appropriate treatment given, care being taken 
always to make the treatment such as will effectively check the 
development of the pests. 

Lice of any of the common troublesome kinds are easily found by 
an expert when present, and it is hard for the expert to understand 
how they escape the notice of anyone looking for them, yet in 
innumerable cases where lice are literally swarming, people have 
declared that they failed to find them. This being the case it is 
advisable that a poultryman whose fowls or chicks seem unthrifty, 
with the symptoms of listlessness and inactivity produced by severe 
attacks of lice, treat for lice even though he is not sure of there 
being any. Then if the trouble is due to lice they are destroyed, 
while if the weakness is of other origin the treatment is beneficial 
in that it comes when the fowls need it to prevent the rapid increase 
of the few lice presumed to be always present. 

Lice on small chicks almost invariably attack the head, where 



158 THE. COMMON-SENSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

they may look like feathers just starting. When very abundant 
they may be found in the down on other parts of the body, but as a 
rule they will be on the head if anywhere. It is customary among 
poultrymen to call them " head lice," though the same lice on older 
fowU are found regularly on the body, especially in the fluff, and 
under the wings. 

On chicks these lice may be killed by a powder that is actually an 
insecticide, or by the application of lard, vaseline, or ointment. 
When the chicks are "greased" each one must be handled sepa- 
rately, and the "grease" applied with the finger, usually to the 
head, under the wings, and about the vent. This method is prac- 
ticed more perhaps than any other. While effective, it is a very 
tedious and laborious process, and quite unnecessary, for with an 
insecticide and a powder gun such as is sold for "fly" powder, a 
whole brood, including the hen, may be thoroughly treated in less 
time than is consumed in preparation to treat the brood by greasing. 

Pure pyrethrum, or Persian insect powder, is the most generally 
procurable insecticide available for this purpose. There are worth- 
less imitations of it on the market, and on the other hand, it is 
the eflicient ingredient in many insecticides sold under trade names. 
The frequency of adulteration of this article, and the fact that 
effective insecticides are sold under various names, make it advis- 
able to insist here on the need of testing for efficiency whatever 
article is used. When to be used on chicks, this is very easily 
done. If lice are observed on the head of a chick, hold the chick in 
the hand, and either sprinkle a little of the powder on the head and 
rub in lightly with the finger, or apply with a powder gun. If the 
insecticide will stupefy and kill the lice they release their hold and 
drop off. If they do not it may be assumed that the article on hand 
is not effective used in that way. Unless the powder used is known 
to kill it is a waste of time to use it, Sind j^^rease, which is certain, 
should be used at once regardless of the labor involved, for two or 
three large lice which cause little annoyance on the body of an 
adult fowl, will kill a small chick in a few days, and even in a 
single day may so drain his vitality that he will never make up the 
loss. 

Older chicks and fowls are treated with powder by holding by the 
feet, head downward, so that the feathers relax and allow the 



IN5LCTICIDL5 VARY IN QUALITY. 159 

powder when applied to penetrate to the skin. The easiest way to 
apply the powder is with a powder gun, and if an insecticide of 
known efficiency when applied to chicks is used, a few puffs into 
the feathers around the vent and under the wings is all that is nec- 
essary. Only a little powder is used, and there is no waste. The 
powders on the market vary greatly in insecticide properties. 
Those possessing little of such properties are still effective if used 
freely and well worked into the feathers. Any fine dry material 
can be used to kill lice in this way, if thoroughly applied, as a fowl 
applies it when wallowing. While it is not denied that most 
insect powders have more destructive properties than dust or ashes, 
the greatest efficiency of many of them is in that thoroughness in 
application which is insured by the fact that they are comparatively 
expensive, and so must be properly used. The repetition of treat- 
ments of old fowls for lice should be governed by indications of 
the presence of lice. Usually it is advisable to give a second appli- 
cation about a week after the first. Dusting machines, in which 
four or five fowls at a time may be dusted, are sometimes offered 
for sale, and some poultrymen make such appliances for their own 
use. The effect of such handling on the fowls is open to question. 
Old fowls are sometimes greased for lice, a most tedious process, 
and one that no one whose time is of any value can practice. Dip- 
ping of fowls in liquid solutions for lice is a barbarous practice, now 
generally abandoned. 

Red Mites. 

The most common and troublesome of lice visiting the bodies of 
fowls only to feed, is the little red mite. From the practical free- 
dom of my own premises from this pest for many years, until I 
deliberately cultivated it for experimental purposes, I can affirm 
that it is easy to prevent by the general preventive measures advo- 
cated earlier in this chapter; easy to subdue by thorough treatment, 
yet hard to completely eliminate when once it has been allowed to 
spread through a plant. 

These mites take their name from their color when gorged with 
blood. In this condition they may be found by day on the under 
sides of the roosts, and in cracks and crevices about the ends of 
the roosts. When few in number they may not be conspicuous, 



160 THE. COMMON-SENSE. POULTRY DOCTOR. 

but as they increase they may be found, especially at the end of the 
roosts in masses which if the roost is disturbed are crushed and 
leave a bloody smear at the spot. Before the mites themselves are 
thus conspicuous, and before their attacks on the fowls have any 
noticeable results, their " tracks " maybe found about the places 
where they congregate. They excrete matter which looks like a 
gray or whitish fly speck, and these gray specks, plainly seen by 
the observant poultryman, are the first indications of the presence 
of red mites. 

The red mites are easily destroyed by applications of whitwash,. 
kerosene, crude petroleum, hot water, and carbolic acid, or solu- 
tions of any of the numerous liquid lice killers upon the market. 
All that is necessary to clean them out is to treat them daily in 
their harboring places on and about the roosts until none can be 
found. The number found is less each day, but as their habit is to 
retreat by day to the most convenient hiding place, they go to 
inaccessible places only when the nearer ones are overflowing. 
Hence their destruction becomes merely a matter of treating them 
as found. The important points are to make each application 
thorough, and to repeat daily at first, then at longer intervals, until 
no more mites can be discovered on the roosts. By persistence in 
this course they may be completely eliminated, but I have found 
that a course of treatment which destroys them to the point where 
they will give no more trouble that season, may still leave enough 
to make trouble the next season if given the opportunity to do so. 

Bedbugs. 

What are known to poultrymen as bedbugs, and supposed to be 
identical with the bedbug which infests dwelling houses, Salmon 
supposes to be the dovecot bug, an insect which attacks pigeons 
especially, but sometimes attacks poultry, and when once established 
in a poultry house seems to be the most troublesome of insect 
pests, being not nearly so susceptible to liquid lice destroyers as 
the red mite. It may, however, be eliminated by persistence in the 
course of treatment described for mites. 

Fleas, and Stinging Insects. 

In some sections fowls — especially chicks — are often bitten by 
fleas, and the bites are quite painful. The remedy for inflamma- 



HOW R05L BUGS KILL CKICK5. 161 

tion from flea bites is to bathe with vinegar and water, and apply 
carbolated vaseline. Fowls are occasionally stung by bees or wasps, 
but it is rarely that the stinging is seen, and the effects are as likely 
to be supposed to be due to some other cause. The treatment rec- 
ommended for flea bites is beneficial in any inflammation of the 
face, the part oftenest stung or bitten. 

Rosebugs. 

Rosebugs are said to kill chickens which eat many of them, by 
the hooks on the legs catching in the side of the crop and causing- 
intense irritation which finally results in death. No satisfactory 
way of avoiding losses from rosebugs has been offered, except to 
keep chicks where they cannot get them. It appears that they 
cause trouble only when very numerous and when freely eaten by 
the chicks, but our exact knowledge of the subject is very limited. 
In my own experience I have had no losses from chicks ranging 
where rosebugs were quite numerous sometimes. 



CHAPTER XV. 



The Vicious Habits of Fowls. 



FROM the fact that the earliest writers on poultry diseases dis- 
cussed bad habits of fowls under the general subject of 
disease, it might be inferred that they had anticipated those who 
regard many vices in human beings as the result of physical mal- 
formations or disorders. But while I have no wish to deprive those 
€arly writers or those who followed them of any credit due them, it 
is more likely that the discussion of bad habits was included in 
early chapters on diseases because some of them are naturally sug- 
gested to the mind when treating of diseases which show symp- 
toms resembling the results of bad habits, and some bad habits 
originate indirectly from certain disorders. Thus feather eating 
comes up foi consideration very naturally after discussing a dis- 
ease causing loss of feathers, and the egg eating habit often owes 
its origin to a diseased condition which causes the fowl to lay 
abnormal eggs. 

With the possible exception of feather eating, the common vices 
of fowls may develop and continue in fowls that are and remain in 
perfect physical condition. They are bad habits not injurious to 
the fowls that have them, but dangerous to the victims or destruc- 
tive of profits. In general they are a result of the conditions to 
-which the fowls are subject. Close confinement and crowding, and 
perhaps the deficiencies in food or irregularities in feeding too usual 
"wnere such conditions obtain, are the common causes of most of 



HABIT OR DI5LASL. 163 

the bad habits of fowls. The reader will note that I am less posi- 
tive about the connection between errors in feeding and some bad 
habits than many who discuss these topics. This is because it 
does not seem to me to be evident in enough cases to justify con- 
sidering it a general cause, and because I have found that the 
owners of fowls which develop bad habits when closely confined, 
crowded, and with nothing to do the greater part of the time, are 
always seeking for something that will cure the habit without put- 
ting them to the trouble or expense of correcting the conditions 
responsible for it. Practically they consider the bad habit as a 
disease, and we might class it as such under the broad definition of 
disease as " a life, the manifestations of which deviate more or less 
from the normal." But equally for the prevention and treatment 
of bad habits it is essential to understand that they are the result of 
artificial conditions, and that fowls not subject to such conditions 
rarely have these habits. I do not from my own experience or 
observation know of any instances of the bad habits discussed in 
this chapter developing among fowls at liberty or in quarters so 
roomy as to give substantially the conditions of full liberty. 

At the same time the conditions under which these habits develop, 
do not invariably develop them. They are simply special risks of 
these conditions. As such they call for prompt and vigorous treat- 
ment when they make their appearance, this treatment to include 
as much change in conditions as necessary to make remedial 
measures quickly effective, for habit is more contagious in fowls 
than in most creatures, and time given to futile efforts to break 
bad habits is time in which those habits are extending and their 
bad results increasing. Fortunately these vicious habits are few in 
number, and their presence easily observed at the outset. 

Feather Eating. 

The evidence of feather eating is seen in the entire loss of 
feathers from a portion of the body of a fowl, in a ragged condi- 
tion of the feathers, the web frayed and partly stripped from the 
quill. The entire loss of feathers is oftenest from the rump. The 
ragged condition more commonly of the feathers of the neck, 
though both conditions may be noted in both sections. The differ- 
ence in " symptoms " seems to be due to several things, but perhaps 



164 THL COMMON-SLNSL POULTRY DOCTOR. 

principally to the fact that when fowls submit to have their feathers 
plucked at the feather is not pulled out so often as when the fowl 
tries to escape, while when a victim of the practice tries to avoid it, 
the attacking fowl is more likely to seize a feather near the rump, 
and the combined force of the fowl pulling the feather and that 
trying to escape results in the feather being pulled out, when with 
less force it would only be damaged. When fowls submit to muti- 
lation of their feathers the progressive destruction finally results in 
leaving the parts attacked bare. While the first evidences of 
feather plucking are likely to be seen in the section mentioned, 
and the worst effects found in those areas, the vice if allowed to 
continue leads to a partial destruction of the plumage all over the 
fowl, leaving it in a most unsightly condition, and no doubt also 
sometimes seriously affecting health and productiveness. Feathers 
plucked out will grow again if no further attacks are permitted ; 
but where the quill remains no restoration takes olace until molting 
time. 

When evidence of feather eating is discovered, the first thing to 
do is to find the culprit. Usually there is at first but a single bird 
with the habit. In a small flock one or two birds may seriously 
damage the plumage of all the rest — so much so that it might be 
supposed the habit general. Sometimes the feather eaters are the 
only birds in the flock not damaged, and suspicion usually attaches 
to the birds that do not suffer from the habit. But to make sure 
one must watch until he catches fowls in the act. Unless the 
fowls detected are of uncommon value, and unless the habit is 
general, the best way to do is to kill the feather eaters. When this 
seems inadvisable, the most satisfactory remedy is to give the 
fowls something to do. Instead of feeding cut bone or lean meat 
in chunks which they can greedily swallow, give them bones with 
shreds of meat dried on them, or hang up strips of hard dry meat, 
by picking at which they can keep busy. Feather eating is often 
developed by fowls confined together on exhibition. A veteran 
exhibitor claims that any such case can be " cured " by feeding the 
fowls developing the habit a liberal feed of bologna sausage. His 
idea is that in the salt and spices contained in the sausage the fowls 
get something the lack of which in their diet was responsible for 
the outbreak of the babit. From my general experience and obser- 



PRLVLNTIVL5 OF FEATHLR EATING. 165 

vation of the effective correction of bad habits in fowls, I do not 
attach much importance to remedies to be taken internally. When 
they do seem to make a cure it is a question whether it was due to 
something they supply or to the fact that they diverted the attention 
of the fowl long enough for it to forget the habit. The sure cures 
for feather eating are removal of worst offenders, and giving the 
flock something to do. 

Poultry bits of wire, to prevent feather eating, were at one time 
much recommended, and may still be used occasionally. Their use 
seems to have been more common in England than here. The bit 
of fine wire was inserted on the upper mandible at the nostrils, 
and prevented the beak being closed tight. The fowl was thus 
unable to grasp the feather. 

Trimming the edges of the upper mandible with a knife, is also 
said to make the fowl incapable of taking a firm hold on a feather. 
Such measures, however, are of but temporary effect or partial 
efficiency. The sight of fowls attempting, though unsuccessfully, 
to pull feathers, may lead other fowls to imitate and acquire the 
habit. 

Comb Eating. 

This vice is peculiar in that almost invariably the male in a pen 
is the victim, and his mates the offenders. Like feather eating, it is 
one of the vices of idleness. The mystery is why the males so 
indifferently submit to it. They will stand quietly while the hens 
eat away large portions of the comb. The trouble begins when a 
hen pecking at the comb of the male, perhaps at something she 
sees there, as an insect, or a small scab, starts the blood, and the 
first slight taste of it gives an appetite for more. Other hens are 
likely to join her, and the comb of the male may be ruined in 
appearance in a very few minutes. 

The male so affected should be removed from the pen, and not 
returned until the comb is thoroughly healed. Meantime the hens 
should be given plenty of exercise, and if there has been any short- 
age of animal food in their ration, it is well to gire them dried 
meat as recommended for feather eating. I have never been able to 
discover any close connection between comb eating and improper 
rations, but it is possible that it does exist in some cases, and in 
any event, the dried meat furnishes one of the most attractive kinds 



166 THL COMMON-SLNSE POULTRY DOCTOR. 

of occupation for idle hens. It is not necessary that hens should 
be compelled to exercise or kept busy all the time. All that is 
necessary is to make such provision for exercise that when a hen 
feels like doing something, there is something appropriate for her 
to do, and she is not thrown entirely on her own resources. 
Scratching litter, vegetables, and meat to pick at, etc., are the usual 
provisions for this purpose. 

Egg Eating. 

Egg eating generally begins with an egg broken in the nest, and 
eaten either by the hen that lays it or by a later visitor to the nest. 
Breakage is oftenest of soft shelled and thin shelled eggs, and so 
the habit may owe its origin to something in the condition of fowls 
laying such eggs. The treatment of such troubles is considered 
in Chap. IX. Here we have only to discuss the habit of egg eating, 
which, from beginning with the eating of one egg broken acciden- 
tally, may develop until all the flock are persistent egg eaters, and 
will break and eat all eggs they find. 

Besides eggs broken in the nests, eggs dropped on the ground 
often furnish the incentive to pick and break them. Some curious 
things may be observed by watching the actions of hens in such 
cases. They are much more likely to attack, from curiosity an egg 
they see the hen drop in the yard than one they find lying there, 
and they may become quite persistent in breaking and eating eggs 
on the ground, yet never trouble those in the nests. If it were not 
so, the habit could no doubt be more general than it is, for it is not 
at all easy to guard against the occasional dropping of eggs on 
the floor of the house or in the yard. 

When eggs are broken in the nest they are not always eaten. 
When an egg is found broken in the nest it should be removed and 
the nest cleaned out and new nest material put in without delay. 
The cleaning up process should be looked after even if the egg has 
been eaten, and only the soiled material indicates what has taken 
place. Either the remains or the traces of the broken egg are 
usually easily found any time on the day of the accident, so that 
if the attendant who gathers the eggs is at all observant the case 
ought to be noticed at once. There may be no further trouble, 
but that lot of fowls should be watched until the situation is fully 



RLMLDIL5 FOR LGG EATING. 167 

known. Then if a hen lays soft shelled or weak shelled eggs she 
should be removed, treated for that trouble, and not returned to 
the pen until she lays normal eggs. If the eggs of the flock gener- 
ally are weak shelled, see that the supply of oyster shell is full. If 
the weakness of shells is due only to lack of material, a change will 
be noticed within a very few days after the supply has been given. 
Dark nests are generally recommended to cure egg eating hens. In 
such nests, it is supposed, the hen cannot see the egg, hence will 
not break it or eat it if broken. These dark nests, so arranged that 
no direct light is admitted to them, the only light in them coming- 
through the passage by which the hen enters, will prevent egg eat- 
ing sometimes, but are by no means a reliable cure when once the 
habit becomes fixed. It is no easy matter to make a nest that a hen 
will lay in, and make it at the same time so dark that she cannot 
see an egg if determined to break and eat them. When the habit is- 
bad dark nests should be used, but their use should be supplemented 
by making conditions which will attract the hens from the nest and 
the house as much as possible. It is also an advantage to change 
the fowls to a new pen or house where arrangements are unlike 
those to which they have been accustomed. Change and range will 
cure egg eating when everything else has failed. 

Such remedies as rotten eggs, (or eggs containing nauseous 
doses) ; left where the fowls can get them, supplying broken egg 
shells without stint, etc., may work sometimes, but are not reliable 
for established cases. 

Cannibalism in Chicks. 

Young chickens sometimes pick on one or more of their num- 
ber, generally the small and weak, and tear them to pieces. Like 
comb eating in fowls, this trouble seems to develop accidentally. 
It begins oftenest with picking at the foot of a chick that has been 
injured, or on which the punch mark has not healed ; or picking 
at the rectum. In this latter case it is supposed that the passage 
of bloody matter, or blood adhering to the down about the vent, 
furnishes the first incentive. The trouble is so rarely seen at the 
very beginning that it it not best to be too positive on such 
points. It seems to break out oftenest among brooder chicks, 
and to be more likely to develop in chicks of the more energetic 



168 THL COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR 

and curious types of fowls, but it may occur with any chicks 
under any conditions. It will, in most cases, be found that the 
removal of the one, or few, ringleaders in the matter puts an end 
to it. To identify may call for some close watching, sometimes 
;for more continuous watching than it is convenient to give; but 
as with feather eating in a flock, the detection and removal of a 
single individual sometimes puts an end to the trouble, and it is 
3nuch better to maintain a continuous watch, and get at the real 
facts than to apply general remedies blindly. In cases where the 
habit seems to be too general and too well established to admit 
of a remedy by elimination of the worst offenders, such measures 
as are recommended for feather eating may prove effective. It 
should be said, however, that information on the subject is not 
extensive or definite enough to make it advisable to dogmatize 
about either the causes or the results of treatments for this vice. 



CHAPTER XVI 



Molting. 



MOLTING is a natural process occurring gradually and 
inconspicuously in young chickens as they outgrow their 
feathers until as they arrive at maturity they have a complete coat 
of adult plumage, and afterwards normally occurring annually. In 
the annual molts, the first of which begins when the fowl is about 
sixteen months old, the change is very noticeable. Sometimes the 
old feathers fall out all at once, leaving the fowl quite naked. 
Oftener the change is more gradual, but still conspicuous both 
from the ragged appearance of the fowl and from the contrast 
between the old, dead, dirty feathers not yet shed, and the bright, 
clean, new feathers replacing those that have been molted out. 

When all conditions are normal, the fowls in good condition at 
the beginning of the molt, and fed an abundance of nourishing 
food, molting should proceed quite rapidly and the fowl require no 
special treatment. But with fowls kept under artificial conditions, 
the hens heavily fed to force a large egg production, and the males 
often required to serve a much larger number of females than would 
constitute their harem in a state of nature, and to continue service 
through a much longer period than under natural conditions, to a 
very large proportion of fowls retained for a second or third sea- 
son, the molting period is a trying time, and special feeding, tonics 
and stimulants may be required to bring them through it satisfac- 
torily. As a rule it will be found good policy not to try to carry 



170 / THL COMMON-SLN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

over fowls that show lack of vigor as the molting season approaches. 
Such a fowl of only ordinary value is not a good risk at this period. 
Even when such fowls are disposed of and only thrifty looking 
fowls kept over, it will usually be found that a portion of them do 
not molt freely, and If given only ordinary treatment, seem to 
steadily run down as the season advances. For these cases a little 
tonic or stimulant may be of great benefit. 

The general treatment and care of stock during the molting 
period need not differ materially from the care of the laying stock, 
but if ft can be done conveniently it is a good plan to give hens 
that have been confined during the greater part of the year full 
liberty or the run of a large yard. Many fanciers who wish to keep 
over valuable breeding hens will turn them all out together in a 
grove, brush lot, field or any convenient place where the land is 
fresh and the condition as nearly natural as possible. When this 
cannot be done the poultry keeper should cnake it a point to see 
that his molting hens have as good care in every respect as when 
eggs are bringing highest prices or when he is trying to secure 
from them fertile eggs that will hatch vigorous chicks. Manv 
poultrymen neglect the molting hens, and many others in their 
zeal to secure proper conditions for molting follow the ill advised 
instructions of writers who warn them to avoid fattening foods at 
that period. Heavy feeding of a ration rich in starch and fat is to 
be avoided when fowls are overfat at the beginning of a molt, but 
generally the most rapid molting and the finest coats of new 
feathers are secured by a liberal use of fattening foods as well as of 
animal and green foods, and when molting fowls are not progress- 
ing satisfactorily on a ration presumed to be " balanced" for the 
production of feathers, I would recommend that before giving 
tonics or stimulants the keeper try the effect of more corn and corn 
meal, and resort to medicines only when it is apparent that they 
are needed. A number of condition powders and tonics for fowls 
that are on the market are good in such cases, their chief service I 
presume being as condimental accessories to a diet generally lack- 
ing in such ingredients. Professional medical men generally 
advise very strongly against the use of such commercial articles, 
saying that if a drug is required it should be a drug or compound 
specially administered in accordance with a diagnosis of the case. 



FORCING THL MOLT. 171 

Whatever force there may be in this argument as applied to larger 
animals, (and we have to consider that the professionals* advice on 
the point may be influenced by personal interest), much of it is 
lost in the application to fowls, for professional treatment is out of 
the question in all ordinary cases. The poultryman must rely upon 
himself, and many times will find it much better to take his 
chances with a general remedy — especially one with which he has 
had some experience — than to attempt to make an accurate diag- 
nosis and apply a specific in accordance with it. So while I would 
not recommend the use of condimental foods as generally or as 
continuously as most manufacturers of such goods do, I do feel 
that the poultryman serves his own interest best who with neither 
excessive faith in them nor unreasonable prejudice against them, 
takes a standard article of this kind and by trial observes its results 
until by experience he learns when and how to use it. Tonics may 
also be given in the drinking water. Sanborn suggests for this 
purpose one-half teaspoonful nux vomica to two quarts of water, or 
twenty grains citrate of iron and quinine to the same quantity of 
water. 

Individual fowls differ greatly in their molting habits. Some 
molt quickly, others very slowly, even when in good condition. 
Fowls that are much debilitated molt very tardily, and sometimes 
fail to drop a part of the old feathers. Male birds that have had 
hard service are especially prone to fail to make a complete molt. 
Fanciers watch their birds carefully when molting, and when any 
are observed in this condition pluck out the old dead feathers and 
so secure the growth of new. Inexperienced exhibitors often 
exhibit specimens that have not completely molted. Hens that 
have laid very heavily are often slow to molt, and in rare cases 
hens continue to lay and fail to molt at all. 

Frequently hens molt twice in the same season. This seems 
most likely to occur when they molt very early, but our knowledge 
of the irregular phenomena of molting is too incomplete to war- 
rant any positive general statements on such points as that, or the 
winter molting of pullets that began to lay late in the summer or in 
the early fall. Both these phenomena are of frequent occurrence, 
but it has not yet been ascertained that they follow any rule. 

Various methods of forcing molting, inducing an early molt, and 



172 HE, COMMON-5LN5L POULTRY DOCTOR. 

securing a rapid one, have from time to time been announced, often 
with indorsements that carry weight ; but the general results of 
tests of such methods do not give positive results regularly enough 
to establish the usefulness of the methods. 

It has been observed further, that those whose experience was 
most promptly reported as confirming the claims of processes for 
regulating the molt, are the same who are quite regularly identified 
with positive results from each " new thing" offered poultrymen ; 
a fact which greatly diminishes the authority of their reports with 
those who observe it. 



APPENDIX. 



The Air Sac Mite. — This is a minute parasite infesting the air 
sacs of birds. When existing in fowls in small numbers they seem 
harmless, but when they increase greatly they cause debility, and 
scmetimes serious diseases. When numerous they appear as a 
fine whitish powder on the surfaces of the air sacs, and any such 
symptom observed in dressing fowls calls for an investigation, 
preferably by an expert. Salmon while mentioning fumigation 
with tar and sulphur for affected birds, advises that no birds from 
such flocks be sold for breeding or used as breeders, and appears 
skeptical as to the parasite being exterminated by any means short 
of the killing off of the entire stock. 

Black 'Rot. — Sanborn describes this as a gangrenous condition 
of the comb, developing oftenest in fowls with tall combs. The 
whole or a part of the comb may turn dark and finally drop off. 
Causes — uncertain. Treatment, Yz teaspoon muriate of ammonia 
to the pint of drinking water; paint comb three times a day with 
a lotion, of one ounce water, ^ ounce glycerine, 2 grains carbolic 
acid. Provide air, sunshine, and green food in variety. 

Fish-Skin Disease. — Mentioned by Sanborn as resembling scaly 
leg, but not caused by parasite. He attributes it to deficiency of 
oil in skin. May be treated as mild case of scaly leg. 

Nodular Taeniasis. — Described by Salmon as an intestinal dis- 
ease characterized by nodules resembling tubercles. These nod- 
ules are supposed to be produced by tape worms. Little is known 
of this disease. 



INDEX 



Abdomen, dropsy of, 131. 

Abnormal ejcgs. 111. 

Abnormal laying, 31. 

Abscesses, 27, 33, 126. 

Accideuts,136, 

Aconite, 49. 

Actions of sick fowls, 22. 

Air passages, defective, 27. 

Air sac mite, 36, 173. 

Air under skin, 27. 

Alkali soils, effects of, 14. 

Alum water, 48. 

Anemia, 26, 98. 

Apoplexy, 31,1B6. 

Appetite, abnormal, 127. 

Appetite symptoms, 28. 

Ashes, coai, 14. 

Asper gll losis, 24, 27, 28, 29. 33, 96. 

Arsenite of antimony, 51. 

Asthenia, 24. 

Atmospheric Influences, 18. 



Bacterial enteritis, 29, 85. 

Baldness, 136. 

Barebacks, 137. 

Beak, broken, 143. 

Beak, deformed, 15. 

Bedbugs, 160. 

Belching, 28. 

Biliary repletion, 33, 77. 

Black bead, 33, 101. 

Black rot, 26,28,29, 173. 

Bleaching of legs, 14. 

Bloody diarrhea, 29. 

Bloody epgs, 112, 

Bloody mucus, 28. 

Boils, 27. 

Bowel, protrusion of, 31. 

Brain, dropsy of, 132. 

Break down, 128. 

Breathing symptoms, 27. 

Breeding from fowls cured of disease, 17. 

Broken beak, 142,143. 

Broken feathers. 26. 

Broken limbs, 142. 

Bronchitis. 26,27, 42, 49. 

Bruises, 138. 

Bryonia, 49. 

Bumbletoot, 27, 122. 



Camphor, 48. 

Caucer,106. 

Cancerous growths, 35. 

Cannibalism, 166. 

Catarrh, 26, 27,28. 

Catarrhal colds, 42. 

Catarrh, coutagious, 61. 

Catarrh, Intestinal, 83. 

Catarrh of the crop, 29, 66. 

Causes of disease, 37. 

Cayenne, 48. 

Cheesy lumps, 26. 

Chicken pox, 26, 115. 

Chills, 25. 

Choking, 31, 138. 

Cholera, 24, 29, 30, 33, 34, 92. 

Circulation of air, 46. 

Cleanliness, 19. 

Coal ashes, 14,155. 

Cold, effects of, 44. 

Colds, 24.37,42. 

Comb, color of, 14. 

Comb eating, 164. 

Comb injuries, 139. 

Comb symptoms, 25. 

Condition powders, 47. 

Conditions, improper, 37. 

Congestion of liver, 33, 70. 

Congestion of lungs. 26, 42, 55. 

Conjunctivitis, 42,69. 

Constipation, 28, 30, 128. 

Contagion, 37. 

Contagious catarrh, 42, 51. 

Contagious diseases, introduction of, 19. 

Convulsive movements, 24. 

Corn as food, 19. 

Corns, 27, 123. 

Coughing spasms, 49. 

Cramps, 24,130. 

Croolin, 48,49. 

Crop bound, 24, 28, 29, 63. 

Crop, diseases of. 62. 

Crop symptoms, 29. 

Croup, 42,49. 

Cuts, 139. 

Dampness, 44. 
Deformed feathers. 26. 
Diagnosis, inaccurate, 21. 
Diarrhea, 28, 29, 78. 



INDEX. 



175 



Diet, 19. 

Difflcult breathing,.27. 

Dlplitherla,26,28,42,53. 

Di|)litJieritic roup, 53,88. 

DiscliarKes, head, 'i8. 

Discharges, vent, 29. 

Disease, Salmon's definition of, 13. 

Dislocations, 143. 

Dropsy, 26, 130. 

Dropsy of feel, 27, 132. 

Dropsy of heurt sac, 34, 131. 

Dropsy of wattles, 26, 131. 

Dumas antimalarial pills, 51. 

Dust bath, 156. 

Dysentery, 81. 

Dyspepsia, 30. 

Economic rule for doctoring, 9. 

Eczema, 26. 

Egg bound, 30, 107. 

Egg broken in oviduct, 109. 

Egg eating, 166. 

Eggs, abnormal, 31, 111. 

Emaciation, 24. 

Emphysema, 132. 

Enlarged crop, 66. 

Enlargement of liver, 75. 

Enteritis, 24, 26, 26, 28, 29, 33, 81, 84. 

Epilepsy, 24, 1S2. 

Exercise, 19. 

Exposure to cold, 44. 

Eye, appearance in health, 14. 

Eyelids gummed and swollen, 26, 42. 

Eyes, sore, 59. 

Face puflfed, 26. 

Fatty degeneration of liver, 33, 76. 
Favus, 26,27, 116. 
Feather eating, 26, 162. 
Feathers, appearance of healthy, 14. 
Feather symptoms, 26. 
Feeding, im proper, 37, 61. 
Feeding methods, 19. 
Feet, appearance of sound, 14. 
Feet, dropsy of, 27, 132. 
Feet, sore, 16. 
Fetid discharge, 28. 
Fish skin disease, 27, 173. 
Fits, see Epilepsy, Cramp, Convulsions 
Fleas, 160. 
Foot symptoms, 27. 
Forcing molt, 170. 
Fowl typhoid, 93, 99, 161. 
Fractures, 142. 
Frostbites, 140. 
Frothy discharge, 28. 



Gangrene of the ovary, 3 
Gapes, 24, 26, 28, 34, 147. 
Gaping, 25. 
Gas, belching, 28. 
Gastritis, 24, 26. 28, 29, 30, 
Gastro enteritis, 83. 
Giddiness, 25. 
Gleet, vent, 30. 
Going light, 24, 98. 
Greenish excrement, 29. 
Gummed eyelids, 26. 

Habits of fowls, 15. 
Head discharges, 28. 
Head svmotoms, 24, 25. 



106. 



Health, importance of, signs of, 15. 
Healthy fowls, actions of, 13. 
Heart, dropsy of, 27. 131. 
Heart, rupture of, 31. 
Heart symptoms, 34. 
Hemorrnages, 34. 
Houses, open, 18. 
Houses, tight, 19. 
House, warm, 18. 
Hydrogen dioxide, 48. 
Hygienic conditions, 11. 
Hypertrophy of liver, 75. 

Identification of diseases, 11. 
Impaction of crop, 63. 
Improper conditions, 37. 
Improper feeding, 37,61. 
Indigestion, 28, 30. 
Inflammation of bowels. 81. 
Inflammation of crop, 66. 
Inflammation of heart, 34. 
Inflammation of kidneys, 34. 
Inflammation of liver. 26. iKi, 73. 
Inflammation of mouth, 26, 134, 
Inflammation of oviduct, 110. 
Influenza, 42, 53. 
Injuries. 136. 
Intestinal worms, 149. 
Intestines, diseases of, 77. 
Inward symptoms, 31. 
Irregular appetite, 28. 
Isolated cases, 12. 
Isolating new birds, 20. 
Isolating sick birds, 10. 

Jaundice, 26, 33,77. 
Joints, swollen, 27. 

Keratitis, 59, 60. 

Kidneys, inflammation of, 24, 26, 28, 

Kidney symptoms, 34. 

Kidney troubles, 133. 

Labored breathing, 27. 

Lameness, 25. 

Laying symptoms, 30. 

Leg broken. 142. 

Legs, bleaching of, 14. 

Leg symptoms, 27. 

Leg weakness, 25. 133. 

Leukemia, 25,28,33.100. 

Lice, 154. _ 

Lime, effect on fowls, 67. 

Lime in poultry houses, 50. 

Liquid in abdominal cavity, 34. 

Liver, atrophy of, 24. 

Liver diseases, 69. 

Liver, inflammation of, 26, 28. 

Liver symptoms, 3;^. 

Local symptoms. 25. 

Locomotion, difiicHlt, 23. 

Loss of appetite, 28. 

Loss of featliers, 26. 

Lumps, cheesy, 26. ^^ .„ >u: 

liungs, congestion of, 26, 42, 66. 

Lung symptoms, 34. 

Minim, a, 151. 
Mite, air sac, 36,173. 
Mites, 154. 
Molting, 168. 
Moping, 15. 



:jV ^ 



176 



INDLX. 



Mouth discbarges, 28. 
Mouth, inflammation of, 26, 134, 
Mouth, water running from, 28. 
Mucus discharge, 28. 
Muscles, contraction of, 25. 
Mustard, 48. 

Neck, convulsive movements of, 24, 25. 

Nodular taeniasis, 34, 173. 

Nodules in liver, 33. 

Nodulesin lungs, 34. 

Nostrils, discharges from, 28,42. 

Nursing, 11. 

Obscure symptoms, 21. 
Onions for colds, 47. 
Open houses, 18. 
Ovarian symptoms, 35. 
Ovary, diseases of, 106. 
Overcrowding, 19. 
Overfeeding, 28. 
Oviduct, diseases of. 107. 
Oviduct, rupture of, 30. 

Pale comb, 25. 

Patches in throat. 26. 

Pepper, red, 47. 

Peritonitis, 24, 28, 30, 34, 145. 

Pip, 26, 134. 

Plumage, effects of age and wear on, 14. 

Plumage, rough, 23. 

Pneumonia, 18, 26. 34, 42, 57, 

Poisoning, 66, 84, 144. 

Porous shells. 111. 

Post mortems, 31. 

Prevention of disease, first rule, 17. 

Prolapsus of oviduct, 109. 

Protrusion at vent, 31. 

Puffed skin, 27. 

Puffing of face, 26. 

Purgatives in constipation, 130. 

Purplish comb, 14,26. 

Rapid breathing, 27. 

Rattling in throat, 49. 

Red mites, 168. 

Red pepper, 47. 

Remedies, common, 39. 

Rheumatism, 25, 27, 134. 

Rosebugs, 160. 

Roup, 26, 37,42, 51. 

Roup smell, 54. 

Rule for prevention of disease, first, 17. 

Rule for treating sick fowls, 9. 

Rupture of heart, 31, 34. 

Rupture of oviduct, 30, 110. 

Salmon's definition of disease, 13. 

Scabies, 26, 118. 

Scab on comb, 26. 

Scaly leg, 27,118. 

Scurf, 118. 

Scurfy skin, 27. 

Seasoning food, 47. 

Skin, appearance in health, 14. 

Skin diseases, 114. 

Skin symptoms, 27. 

Smell, the roup, 54. 

Sneezing, 27, 42. 

Snow, fowls on, 44. 

Soap for colds, 48. 

Soft shelled eggs. 111. 



Soil conditions, 18. 

Sore eyes, f'9. 

Sore head, 115. 

Sores, i!7. 

Spongia, 49. 

Spotted liver, 33. 

Stimulants, 47. 

Stomach, Inflamniatioii of. C8. 

Strains, 144. 

Strangling, 143. 

Stupor, 23. 

Sudden appearance of symptdnis, 13.. 

Sudden deaths, 31. 

Sulphate of copper, 48. 

Swallowing moiioii, 24. 

Swelling of face, 26. 

Swollen eyelids, 26. 

Swollen feet. 27. 

Symptoms appearing sudden! v, 13. 

Symptoms common to uiauy dis<a!-:e-. ; 

Symptoms, local, 25. 

Symptoms of colds, 42. 

Symptoms of disease, 21. 

Temperature chanjres. 47. 4^. 

Temperature diseases, 18, 4J. 

Testicles, diseases of, 35, 112. 

Thirst, 29. 

Throat, mucus in, 24. 

Tliroat, patches in, 26. 

Tight houses, 18. 

Toes, contraction of, 25. 

Tonics, 47. 

Torpor, 23. 

Tuberculosis. 24, 25, 33,34, 89. 

Tumors, 27, 106. 

Tumors of ovary, 35. 

Typical cases of disease rare, 21. 

Ulcerated intestines, 34. 
Urates, 30. 

Vent discharges. 29. 
Vent gleet, 30. 113. 
Ventilation, 18. 
Ventilation, improper, 45. 
Vent, protrusion at, 31. 
Vertigo, 24, 2-% 1.35. 
Visible symjitoms, 22. 

Walk stiff, 23. 

Warm houses, 18. 

Warts, 26. 

Wasting of liver, 75. 

Wattles, dropsy of, 26, 131. 

Wattles, enlarged, 26. 

Weakness, 22,23. 

Weather changes, susceptibility to, 16. 

Whistling sounds. 27. 

White comb, 116,118. 

Whitish excrement. 29. 

Whooping cough, 49. 

Windpipe, obstruction of, 24. 

Wind puffs, 132. 

Wing broken, 142. 

Worms, 24, 28, 61, 149. 

Worms in windpipe, 34. 

Wounds, 145. 

Yards, condition of, 19. 
Yellowish comb, 14. 
Yellowish excrement, 29. 



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